What do we call it when new inventions or ideas change the name of something old? It used to be that the word guitar was sufficient, but now we regularly distinguish between an acoustic guitar and an electric guitar. Same for television, a word that sufficed until we started saying color television to distinguish it from the earlier black-and-white version. What’s the word for such terms? We know you can’t wait: it’s retronym. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Retronyms for New Inventions and Ideas”
Hello, you have A Way with Words.
Hi, this is Victoria DeLeon from McAllen, Texas.
All right.
McAllen, oh, hello. What’s going on in Texas?
I have a question for you, something that’s bugged me for most of my adult life.
Let me give you a little bit of history on this.
Back when I was about 12 or 13, I think I picked up one of my grandmother’s Reader’s Digest or something, and there was an article in there that talked about words that are, let me see, they’re relabeled after a new form of that product is invented.
Let me give you an example.
Television, when it was first invented, was simply television or TV. Everybody had a TV.
But when color TV was invented, they had to go back and relabel the first one black and white TV.
So black and white didn’t exist until color TV existed.
And the same thing with an acoustic guitar.
An acoustic guitar didn’t exist until an electric guitar was invented.
Before then, it was simply a guitar.
Now they’re air guitars.
Exactly.
So you’re calling about this phenomenon then?
Yes, sir.
And actually, they had about 30 to 40 more of these words, and there was a term, like a collective term for all of those words.
The word that you’re looking for is a retronym.
A retronym?
Yep. R-E-T-R-O-N-Y-M. Retronym.
And it’s been used to describe this phenomenon since at least 1980.
As a matter of fact, one of the first people we know to use this word, and perhaps the first, was a former president of National Public Radio, Frank Mankiewicz.
Yeah.
And he was quoted by William Sapphire in one of his on-language columns in the New York Times Magazine in 1980, talking about this phenomenon.
And you’ve mentioned some of the classic retronyms.
Okay.
The acoustic guitar one is one that’s almost always brought up when this is discussed in the language books.
Yeah, another one of my favorites lately is bar soap.
Bar soap.
Yes.
As opposed to liquid soap, huh?
Yeah.
Yes.
Yeah, all of a sudden everybody’s using liquid soap.
What else do we have here?
Silent movies.
All movies were silent in the beginning, and they didn’t come to be called silent movies until the talkies came around, right?
Okay.
Well, how about this one, you two?
How about World War I?
Oh, great one.
Yeah, so the list goes on and on.
They’re great fun to collect.
They are, and I haven’t exactly started a pencil and paper list, if you will.
I just kind of keep them in my head.
-huh, -huh.
If you Google the term retronym, you’ll come up with some lists that other people have made, but I have no doubt at all that they’re incomplete, and you could probably add plenty to them.
Okay, well, thank you.
Sure thing.
It’s interesting that you say paper and pencil list.
I mean, what other kind of, you know?
Instead of a wiki list or a palm pie list.
To tell you the truth, I now make all my lists on my Palm Pilot.
On your Palm or your Palm Pilot?
My Palm Pilot.
Okay.
I didn’t know if you were writing on your skin or what.
No, no.
Victoria, thank you so much for your call.
I’m glad we were able to help you.
Well, thank you very much.
All right.
Best of luck.
Bye-bye.
Bye-bye.
Bye-bye.
Well, if you have a favorite retronym, give us a call.
The number is 1-877-929-9673 or email us.
The address is words@waywordradio.org.
