SOS Has Never Meant Anything

SOS is arguably the most well-known abbreviation in the entire globe, and almost everyone has heard of it. It was created in 1905 by Germany after various nations realized that ships in trouble needed a universal, effective way to signal for assistance that would cut through linguistic boundaries. SOS was created for use in morse code, and those letters were selected for their simplicity and clarity. Three dots in a row, created by swiftly tapping on the telegraph machine, are used to represent the letter "S" in code. Three longer taps, called dashes, are used to represent the letter "O."

The letters were not even taken into consideration when SOS was first proposed. The only characters were dot, dot, dash, dash, and dot dot dot. It was simple to comprehend and unlikely to be misunderstood at any time. Because it is obvious that it is not a word when people hear it today and see it written down. This has sparked debate as to what it must represent, with "rescue our ship" being frequently offered as the response. However, it was never meant to have any meaning at all, therefore any conceivable meanings like "rescue our ship" or "save our souls" are just inaccurate backronyms that were added much later.