If someone tells you that some English word started its life as an acronym (a pronounceable series of initials or other word pieces), nod politely and be on your way. It's probably not true. For every laser (from "light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation") and scuba ("self-contained underwater breathing apparatus"), there is a whole drawerful of cruds (not actually from "Chalk River unidentified deposits"), fucks (not from "fornication under consent of the king" or "for unlawful carnal knowledge"), and KISSes (the band's name is not an acronym for "Knights in Satan's Service").
Acronyms are super, useful, and superuseful. They're just not the English language's favorite means of coining words. Some languages employ this technique very productively, like Russian, which loves acronyms. But not English. Sometimes this means colorful stories about words' histories are false, and the world becomes just that much less magical. But this is forever the cost of truth.
Wikipedia has a brief list of other not-really-acronyms. Memorize them all. Annoy your friends.
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