retronym

retronym

See also: Retronym

English

Etymology

From retro- +‎ -onym; coined by Frank Mankiewicz[1] and popularized by William Safire.[2][3]

Noun

Examples
acoustic guitar dial telephone plain text snail mail film camera book book (reduplicative)

retronym (plural retronyms)

1. (linguistics) A new word or phrase coined for an old object or concept whose original name has become used for something else or is no longer unique. [from 1980s]
   • 1982 December 26, William Safire, “On Language: Watch what you say”, in New York Times‎:

     The phrase is a retronym, the term Frank Mankiewicz has coined to describe names of familiar objects or events that need a modifier to catch up to more modern objects: day baseball and natural turf are in the same category as analog watch.

   • 2004, Geoff Nunberg, Going Nucular: Language, Politics, and Culture in Confrontational Times, →ISBN, page 239:

     You can get a good sense of the pace of change over the past century just by looking at the retronyms we've accumulated. New technologies have forced us to come up with terms like steam locomotive, silent movie […]

Derived terms

• retronymic
• retronymically
• retronymous

 

Translations

A new coinage for an old concept

Arabic: رترونيم‎ n Danish: retronym n Finnish: retronyymi French: rétronyme (fr) m German: Retronym n Greek: παλινώνυμο, αναβαπτιστής (palinónymo, anavaptistís) Icelandic: afturvirkt orð n Italian: retronimo m Japanese: 再命名 (saimeimei), レトロニム (ja) (retoronimu) Norwegian: Bokmål: retronym (no) n Nynorsk: retronym n Portuguese: retrónimo m (Portugal), retrônimo m (Brazil) Russian: ретро́ним (ru) m (retrónim) Spanish: retrónimo m Swedish: retronym (sv)

See also

• avant la lettre
• reduplicative
• Category:English retronyms

References

1. Jeremy M. Brosowsky (March 2001), “Frankly Speaking”, in Business Forward‎, archived from the original on 2002-09-20, retrieved November 8, 2017
2. William Safire (December 26, 1982), “On Language: Watch what you say”, in New York Times‎
3. William Safire (January 7, 2007), “On Language: Retronym”, in New York Times‎, retrieved November 8, 2017

Further reading

• retronym on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

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Danish

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Noun

retronym n (singular definite retronymet, plural indefinite retronymer)

1. (linguistics, rare) retronym

Declension

Declension of retronym

neuter gender	Singular		Plural
	indefinite	definite	indefinite	definite
nominative	retronym	retronymet	retronymer	retronymerne
genitive	retronyms	retronymets	retronymers	retronymernes

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Swedish

Etymology

retro- +‎ -onym

Noun

retronym c

1. retronym

Declension

Declension of retronym
	Singular		Plural
	Indefinite	Definite	Indefinite	Definite
Nominative	retronym	retronymen	retronymer	retronymerna
Genitive	retronyms	retronymens	retronymers	retronymernas

See also

• akustisk gitarr
• tjock-tv
• vedspis