retronym

[re-truh-nim]

noun

1. a term coined in modification of an original term that was used alone (as acoustic guitar instead ofguitar ) to distinguish it from a term referring to a later development (aselectric guitar ). Other examples of retronyms are snail mail and analog watch .

Word History and Origins

Origin of retronym¹

1980, retro- + (-o)nym; coined by Frank Mankiewicz, U.S. journalist

Example Sentences

The Oxford report also highlights increased use of “in-person,” often in retronyms, as lexicographers refer to a new term for an existing thing that distinguishes the original from a new variant.

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However, when the processes of change fall into regular categories and patterns—retronyms or suppletive verbs like to be—they illuminate something bigger.

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And like a hardcover book, “cast album” is starting to seem like a retronym.

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Mr. Safire, who died two years ago, neatly described a retronym as “a noun fitted with an adjective that it never used to need but now cannot do without.”

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That brings us to another hurdle: the retronym, a linguistic nicety that, in other contexts, was long of interest to William Safire, the columnist and language maven.

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