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Supposedly, usr was supposed to be “user”[0] but was switched after the Unix guys needed more disk space and split the file system into the / and /usr mount points.

Then /home was made because /usr was filled up with other things.

[0]: Rob Landley of busybox fame recalled on the busybox mailing lists some ten years ago http://lists.busybox.net/pipermail/busybox/2010-December/074...

Oh really? That's so fascinating. TIL!

It is a shortening for “user”. The “acronym” was made up later (and is BS.)

USR=User system resources, right. I still think that's a backronym.

I think there's some considerable debate about that. "User" is quite common, and certainly not wrong.