The Jargon File (version 4.4.7, 29 Dec 2003):

recursive acronym
 n.

    A hackish (and especially MIT) tradition is to choose acronyms/
    abbreviations that refer humorously to themselves or to other acronyms/
    abbreviations. The original of the breed may have been TINT (?TINT Is Not
    TECO?). The classic examples were two MIT editors called EINE (?EINE Is Not
    EMACS?) and ZWEI (?ZWEI Was EINE Initially?). More recently, there is a
    Scheme compiler called LIAR (Liar Imitates Apply Recursively), and GNU
    (q.v., sense 1) stands for ?GNU's Not Unix!? ? and a company with the name
    Cygnus, which expands to ?Cygnus, Your GNU Support? (though Cygnus people
    say this is a backronym). The GNU recursive acronym may have been
    patterned on XINU, ?XINU Is Not Unix? ? a particularly nice example because
    it is a mirror image, a backronym, and a recursive acronym. See also mung
    , EMACS.


The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (30 December 2018):

recursive acronym

    A hackish (and especially MIT) tradition is to
   choose acronyms and abbreviations that refer humorously to
   themselves or to other acronyms or abbreviations.  The classic
   examples were two MIT editors called EINE ("EINE Is Not
   Emacs") and ZWEI ("ZWEI Was EINE Initially").  More
   recently, there is a Scheme compiler called LIAR (Liar
   Imitates Apply Recursively), and GNU stands for "GNU's Not
   Unix!" - and a company with the name CYGNUS, which expands
   to "Cygnus, Your GNU Support".

   See also mung.

   [Jargon File]

   (1995-04-28)