The DILF is back, says Mick Jagger (but how many acronyms do you know?)

Omg! The acronym is evolving, can you keep up? Mick Jagger made an appearance in a tartly-emblazoned DILF (‘Dad I’d Like to Fumble’) cap at the weekend for heaven’s sake. Are we living in a PLU era (‘Post-Landed Upper Class’ that is) and, importantly, would Nancy Mitford approve? Back in the noughties acronyms were indispensable in helping ensure messages were clipped, concise and within the strict character limit enforced by our Nokia 3310s. LOL was confusing – parents used it to sign off their messages (‘Lots of Love’), and millennials used it after a joke (‘Laugh out Loud’). 

Acronyms (and initialisms and abbreviations, for that matter) can be alienating. In banking it’s all about the HENRYs (‘High Earners, Not Rich Yet’) and the Yuppies (‘Young Upwardly Mobile Professionals’). (Or is that how outsiders talk about bankers?) And in property it’s all about F&B (‘Food and Beverage’) – which is confusing for interior decorators, who work with Farrow & Ball. And at Tatler, obviously, it’s all about PJs (‘private jets’) and 5HS (‘5 Hertford Street’). There was NSIT (‘Not Safe in Taxis’) to allude to a chaperone with wandering hands, and then there was the outdated VVSITPQ (‘Very Very Safe In Taxis Probably Queer’) – and, these days, the ‘T’ would probably change to a ‘U’ for Uber. Then there’s the DFLs (‘Down from Londoners’) – not to be confused with the DILFs, ahem, Mick – and the NY-LONS (‘New York Londoners’) for people who flit between both.

But with technological innovation – and change – acronyms evolve and new ones are coined. BITC, once ‘Back in the Country’, has been reclaimed by the crypto brigade as ‘Bitcoin’, durr. Post-pandemic FOMO (‘Fear of Missing Out’) has become LOMO (‘Love of Missing Out’) and TMI (‘Too Much Information’) has been repurposed by anyone visiting Santorini in high-season as, alert, ‘Too Many Influencers!’.

FILTH (‘Failed in London, Try Hong Kong) – as Boris Johnson’s brother, Max, did – is now ‘Flatless in London, Try going Home’ (which is what we’ve all done). And MCMs (‘Middle Class Monsters’) are now ‘Mythical Crypto Millionaires’ (Sam Bankman-Fried, we’re looking at you). TBH (‘Totally Bogus Honorables’), Nancy Mitford style, is now, quite boringly, ‘To Be Honest’. A feverish shriek of ‘TME!’ once meant ‘Too Many Etonians!’. These days it’s: ‘Too Much Exposure’, dah-ling.

PDG (‘Pile Done Good’) for a beautifully maintained stately, is now ‘Pretty Damn Great’. GO is ‘Gigantic Orangery’ and GTA ‘Great Topiary, Actually’. UN, once upon a time meant ‘United Nations’, but is now, indisputably, ‘Ugly Nepobaby’ (most often said by a non-nepo). FLOT (‘For the Love of Tiaras’) has extended to FLOTUS (‘First Lady of the United States’) – Melania Trump used to know. And IRBIA (‘I’d Rather be in Ambridge’) is now, unquestionably, IRBOLA (‘I’d Rather be on Love Island). Don’t say we didn’t warn you.