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Origin and history of POTUS

POTUS(n.)

wire service acronym for president of the United States (or President of the United States). It is a survival from the Phillips Code, created 1879 by U.S. journalist Walter P. Phillips to speed up (and save money on) Morse code transmissions. It was rendered obsolete from c. 1940 by teletype machines. The Associated Press continued the word in story slug-lines. Other Phillips Code survivals include SCOTUS for "Supreme Court of the United States."

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Trends of POTUS

adapted from books.google.com/ngrams/ with a 7-year moving average; ngrams are probably unreliable.

More to explore

potion
poisonous draught, magic potion" (source also of Spanish pocion "potion," ponzoña "poison," Italian pozione "potion"), from potus...
pot
word from Vulgar Latin *pottus, which is of uncertain origin, said by Barnhart and OED to be unconnected to Late Latin potus...
poison
The slang meaning "alcoholic drink" is by 1805 in American English (potus as a past-participle adjective in Latin meant "...
president
late 14c., "appointed governor of a province; chosen leader of a body of persons," from Old French president and directly from Latin praesidentum (nominative praesidens) "president, governor," noun use of present participle of praesidere "to act as head or chief" (see preside). I
the
definite article, late Old English þe, nominative masculine form of the demonstrative pronoun and adjective. After c.950, it replaced earlier se (masc.), seo (fem.), þæt (neuter), and probably represents se altered by the th- form which was used in all the masculine oblique cases
clobber
"to hit hard, defeat decisively," 1941, British air force slang, of unknown origin, probably related to bombing; possibly echoic. Related: Clobbered; clobbering. In late 19c. British slang an identical word principally had to do with clothing, as in clobber (n.) "clothes," (v.) "
mortgage
late 14c., morgage, "a conveyance of property on condition as security for a loan or agreement," from Old French morgage (13c.), mort gaige, literally "dead pledge" (replaced in modern French by hypothèque), from mort "dead" (see mortal (adj.)) + gage "pledge" (see wage (n.)). So
ghetto
1610s, "part of a city in which Jews are compelled to live," especially in Italy, from Italian ghetto "part of a city to which Jews are restricted," of unknown origin. The various theories trace it to: Yiddish get "deed of separation;" a special use of Venetian getto "foundry" (t
artificial
late 14c., "not natural or spontaneous," from Old French artificial, from Latin artificialis "of or belonging to art," from artificium "a work of art; skill; theory, system," from artifex (genitive artificis) "craftsman, artist, master of an art" (music, acting, sculpting, etc.),

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Dictionary entries near POTUS
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