A retronym is a newer name for something that
differentiates it from something else that is newer, similar, or seen in everyday life; thus, avoiding confusion between the two.
Etymology
The term ''retronym'', a
neologism
In linguistics, a neologism (; also known as a coinage) is any newly formed word, term, or phrase that has achieved popular or institutional recognition and is becoming accepted into mainstream language. Most definitively, a word can be considered ...
composed of the
combining forms ''
retro-'' (from Latin , "before") + ''
-nym'' (from Greek , "name"), was coined by
Frank Mankiewicz in 1980 and popularized by
William Safire in ''
The New York Times Magazine''.
[
In 2000, '' The American Heritage Dictionary'' (4th edition) became the first major dictionary to include the word ''retronym''.
]
Examples
The global war from 1914 to 1918 was referred to at the time as the ''Great War''. However, after the subsequent global war erupted in 1939, the phrase ''Great War'' was gradually deprecated. The first came to be known as ''World War I
World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
'' and the second as ''World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
''.
The first bicycles with two wheels of equal size were called " safety bicycles" because they were easier to handle than the then-dominant style that had one large wheel and one small wheel, which then became known as an "ordinary" bicycle. Since the end of the 19th century, most bicycles have been expected to have two equal-sized wheels, and the other type has been renamed " penny-farthing" or "high-wheeler" bicycle.[ ]
The Atari Video Computer System platform was rebranded the "Atari 2600" (after its product code, CX-2600) in 1982 following the launch of its successor, the Atari 5200, and all hardware and software related to the platform were released under this new branding from that point on. Prior to that time, Atari often used the initialism "VCS" in official literature and other media, but colloquially the Video Computer System was often simply called "the Atari."
The first film in the Star Wars
''Star Wars'' is an American epic film, epic space opera media franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the Star Wars (film), eponymous 1977 film and Cultural impact of Star Wars, quickly became a worldwide popular culture, pop cu ...
franchise released in 1977 was simply titled ''Star Wars
''Star Wars'' is an American epic film, epic space opera media franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the Star Wars (film), eponymous 1977 film and Cultural impact of Star Wars, quickly became a worldwide popular culture, pop cu ...
''. It was given the subtitle "Episode IV: A New Hope" for its 1981 theatrical re-release, shortly after the release of its sequel '' The Empire Strikes Back'' in 1980. Initially, this subtitle was limited to the opening text crawl, as all three films in the original Star Wars trilogy (''Star Wars'', ''The Empire Strikes Back'', and '' Return of the Jedi'') were still sold under their original theatrical titles on home media formats (such as VHS and Laserdisc). It was not until their 2004 DVD releases that the titles of the individual three films were changed to follow the same titling pattern as the Star Wars prequel trilogy (e.g. ''Star Wars Episode IV - A New Hope'').
In the 1990s, when the Internet became widely popular and email
Electronic mail (usually shortened to email; alternatively hyphenated e-mail) is a method of transmitting and receiving Digital media, digital messages using electronics, electronic devices over a computer network. It was conceived in the ...
accounts' instant delivery common, mail carried by the postal service
The mail or post is a system for physically transporting postcards, letters, and parcels. A postal service can be private or public, though many governments place restrictions on private systems. Since the mid-19th century, national postal sy ...
came to be called " snail mail" for its slower delivery compared to email.
Advances in technology and science are often responsible for the coinage of retronyms. For example, the term acoustic guitar
An acoustic guitar is a musical instrument in the string family. When a string is plucked, its vibration is transmitted from the bridge, resonating throughout the top of the guitar. It is also transmitted to the side and back of the instrument, ...
was coined with the advent of the electric guitar
An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external electric Guitar amplifier, sound amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar. It uses one or more pickup (music technology), pickups ...
, analog watch was introduced to distinguish from the digital watch, push bike was created to distinguish from the motorized bicycle, and feature phone
Feature may refer to:
Computing
* Feature recognition, could be a hole, pocket, or notch
* Feature (computer vision), could be an edge, corner or blob
* Feature (machine learning), in statistics: individual measurable properties of the phenome ...
was coined to distinguish from the smartphone
A smartphone is a mobile phone with advanced computing capabilities. It typically has a touchscreen interface, allowing users to access a wide range of applications and services, such as web browsing, email, and social media, as well as multi ...
. Likewise, visible light refers to electromagnetic radiation
In physics, electromagnetic radiation (EMR) is a self-propagating wave of the electromagnetic field that carries momentum and radiant energy through space. It encompasses a broad spectrum, classified by frequency or its inverse, wavelength ...
on the narrow visible spectrum
The visible spectrum is the spectral band, band of the electromagnetic spectrum that is visual perception, visible to the human eye. Electromagnetic radiation in this range of wavelengths is called ''visible light'' (or simply light).
The optica ...
, and water ice was coined to distinguish the solid state of water
Water is an inorganic compound with the chemical formula . It is a transparent, tasteless, odorless, and Color of water, nearly colorless chemical substance. It is the main constituent of Earth's hydrosphere and the fluids of all known liv ...
(including exotic forms) from the solid state of other volatiles such as carbon dioxide and argon.
See also
* Back-formation
Back-formation is the process or result of creating a neologism, new word via Morphology (linguistics), morphology, typically by removing or substituting actual or supposed affixes from a lexical item, in a way that expands the number of lexemes ...
* Backronym
A backronym is an acronym formed from an already existing word by expanding its letters into the words of a phrase. Backronyms may be invented with either serious or humorous intent, or they may be a type of false etymology or folk etymology. The ...
* Contrastive focus reduplication
* Markedness
In linguistics and social sciences, markedness is the state of standing out as nontypical or divergent as opposed to regular or common. In a marked–unmarked relation, one term of an opposition is the broader, dominant one. The dominant defau ...
* -onym
* Protologism
In linguistics, a protologism is a newly used or coined word, a nonce word, that has been repeated but has not gained acceptance beyond its original users or been published independently of the coiners. The word may be proposed, may be extremely ...
References
{{Reflist
Semantics
Neologisms
Types of words
Semantic relations