Today is Superbowl Sunday, which means approximately half the North American population will be watching American football instead of reading our cogent articles. With that in mind, we turn our attention to bathroom humor. By that, I mean a 540 page book given me for Christmas called Uncle John's Heavy Duty Bathroom Reader, 23rd addition, published by BRI, the Bathroom Readers Institute. (Thanks, Sharon!) It carries a warning: This book may make you smarter than everyone you know.
I earlier touched on aptonyms, but the UJHDB Reader introduced me to 'retronyms'.
What is a retronym, you ask? Well, you didn't ask, but I have to maintain a word count.
A retronym is almost the opposite of a neologism. It's a new word or phrase used to describe an old term because it's been replaced by something new.
It might help to explain its opposite. For example, the mechanized improvement upon the archer's traditional bow was called the crossbow, and other variations became known as the recurved bow and the compound bow. When men dropped engines into carriages, the new inventions were called horseless carriages or motor cars to distinguish the new-fangled devices.
Simple, right? In the early 1900s, World War I wasn't called WW-I; rather people called it The Great War or with more hope than realism, the War to End All Wars. Sadly, the unthinkable happened again, and in the 1940s with World War II under way, the former Great War was redubbed World War I.
Similarly, prior to 1959, we had no need to refer to the 'contiguous' 48 states or the 'continental' US, because that would have been redundant. However, after the Sandwich Islands and Alaska became states, the terms came into existence.
Here are a baker's dozen, most from the aforementioned book:
- acoustical guitar
- 1930s, needed to distinguish from the new electric guitar
- broadcast TV
- needed after satellite and cable TV
- cloth diaper
- 1949, needed after disposable diapers
- corn on the cob
- 1920s, needed after canned and frozen 'niblets'
- field hockey
- simply 'hockey' until invention of ice hockey
- hardball
- baseball renamed after introduction of softball
- hard copy
- 1990s, distinguishes from digital copy
- hardcover book
- 1930s, needed after paperbacks
- land line
- formerly phone line until advent of cell phones
- organic farming
- regular old farming until advent of chemical fertilizers, herbicides, and pesticides
- silent film
- 1920s, needed after the new talkies
- snail mail
- simply called 'mail' until the advent of eMail
- vinyl record
- originally 'record' until invention of the CD
Fill in additional retronyms below.
WOW! So field hockey came before ice hockey?? I had no idea. Then again, I live in the desert . . . not a lot of ice around here.
ReplyDeleteI’m thinking Pipe Organ is probably a retronym. But maybe I’m wrong. Were there other types of organs before electric organs came along? (I can just see Leigh typing: "of course! There were liver, lungs, spleen ..."
Perhaps Prop Plane is also a retronym—employed only after the advent of jet aircraft. This makes me think of certain retronym descriptors in military terminology, using the preface “conventional” to denote that something is “non-nuclear,” such as:
Conventional Submarine
Conventional Weapons
Conventional Warfare
As a side note: Only after reading your post and writing this, do I realize how funny it is that “Unconventional Warfare” is not nuclear warfare: it’s guerrilla warfare. Nuclear warfare is – well -- “Nuclear Warfare”. Hmmm…
Good ones, Dixon!
ReplyDeleteI had to laugh about liver, lungs, spleen…
Also interesting are circumstances where a new word does not evolve even though it may be needed. We still speak of CD ROMs. ROM means "read only memory", which was initially true -- CD ROMs were going to save the computer induztry from piracy bexause you couldn't copy them -- only read them. Then CD burners came along and now we all "write" "read only memory" all the time. Also: computer disks continued to be called floppies even when they stopped flopping.
ReplyDeleteHmm. Smartphones, to distinguish them from "conventional" cell phones. Single lens reflex cameras vs digital cameras? Fresh spinach--VERY different from canned spinach.
ReplyDeleteAnd what do you call an item whose makers advertise it as something it was all along anyway, like "caffeine-free ginger ale"?
Brain dead is what I am right now. Why you may ask. The Super Bowl is on. And I have to watch Peyton's little brother win another one, making him one up on his big brother.
ReplyDelete"Virtual" memory, as opposed to real memory? Does that qualify, Leigh?
ReplyDeleteElizabeth, it's "caffeine-free ginger ale" to distiguish it from "diet caffeine-free ginger ale", of course.
Thanks! Those are great suggestions.
ReplyDeleteLouis, I know you'll say when it comes to the Superbowl, it's the destination, not the trip… but the trip is great too, isn't it?
How about full-cream milk, analogue watches, manual cars, self-help, steam trains and home-cooking?
ReplyDeleteI'll probably think of a gazillion more after posting. Fun column - thank you.
As you know, I am always interested in language and how it evolves. Thanks for a quite delicious article!
ReplyDeleteI meant to say "entombed". I don't know how one could be encrypted, but I guess anything is possible in politics.
ReplyDeleteThe comment above was meant for another blog. My mastery of the computer still needs some work
ReplyDelete