Sydney Lupkin, “‘Bacne’ and Other Weird Health Word Origins” (ABCNews.com, Oct. 16, 2013)
Believe it or not, the term “bacne” didn’t come from a bunch of mean high school girls.
Not at first, anyway.
It first appeared online in 1994, when people were speculating about whether certain pro wrestlers were on steroids. Back acne was considered a sign of steroid use, and the two words soon morphed into bacne, said Ben Zimmer, a linguist and executive producer of Vocabulary.com who has written about words for The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal.
Read the rest here.