Xylophone Lumbar Raspberry

The production world is fraught with myriad tales of gear etymology. If you were to ask someone what BNC stands for prior to Wikipedia, you'd get at least two seemingly plausible answers.  So it goes with the venerable XLR.

Not a rocket nozzle.

Whereas we mixers might have once believed that it stood for its pin outs ("ground, lead, return"), we now know that it is the catalogue code for the Cannon Connector:

"Originally manufactured as the Cannon X series, subsequent versions added a locking mechanism (Cannon XL) and then surrounded the female contacts with rubber polychloroprene insulation, which extended the part number prefix to XLR."

So there you have it, sports fans. You're all slightly smarter within a very narrow scope of knowledge. Don't say I'm not a giver.

Link.