retronym

See also: Retronym

English

Examples

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

  • Audio (Southern England):(file)

Noun

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, or which did not originally have a specific name. [from 1980s]
    Coordinate term: anachronym
    • 1982 December 26, William Safire, “On Language: Watch what you say”, in New York Times‎[4]:
      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

Translations

See also

References

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

Further reading

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

Swedish

Etymology

retro- +‎ -onym

Noun

retronym c

  1. retronym

Declension

Declension of retronym
nominative genitive
singular indefinite retronym retronyms
definite retronymen retronymens
plural indefinite retronymer retronymers
definite retronymerna retronymernas

See also

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