Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A word or phrase created because an existing term that was once used alone needs to be distinguished from a term referring to a new development, as acoustic guitar in contrast to electric guitar or analog watch in contrast to digital watch.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun 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 (such as
acoustic guitar whereguitar used to mean this but can now also refer to anelectric guitar ).
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a word introduced because an existing term has become inadequate
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Now that cordless drills have become so common, I notice an example of what you call a retronym: corded drills.
No Uncertain Terms William Safire 2003
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Now that cordless drills have become so common, I notice an example of what you call a retronym: corded drills.
No Uncertain Terms William Safire 2003
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Now that cordless drills have become so common, I notice an example of what you call a retronym: corded drills.
No Uncertain Terms William Safire 2003
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Now that cordless drills have become so common, I notice an example of what you call a retronym: corded drills.
No Uncertain Terms William Safire 2003
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I’ve heard the term retronym used for neologisms that are coined to refit old words that have since become ambiguous.
Rambles at starchamber.com » Blog Archive » The word “virtual” is meaningless 2006
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The competition was to for the best "retronym" a term for an old object needing clarification.
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The competition was to for the best "retronym" a term for an old object needing clarification.
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Then we could have retronym, meaning a word formed by reversing the spelling of another word.
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The top retronym terms that were submitted for a non-Internet librarian were:
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The top retronym terms that were submitted for a non-Internet librarian were:
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