As the world evolves, so does the English language, which has nearly one million words, per Merriam-Webster.
And they are being added all the time. (Although some words nearly go extinct.)
From newly formed generational slang words created by Gen Z and Gen Alpha to technology that continues to change the world and the objects in it, there is a term that allows English to “keep up with the times”: retronyms.
What is a retronym?
Retronyms are a relatively new vocabulary term. The word was first used in 1980, according to Merriam-Webster. It was coined by writer William Safire, who used “retronym” for the first time in his “On Language” column in The New York Times about Frank Mankiewicz, then the president of National Public Radio.
According to Merriam-Webster, a retronym is defined as “a term (such as analog watch, film camera, or snail mail) that is newly created and adopted to distinguish the original or older version, form, or example of something (such as a product) from other, more recent versions, forms, or examples.”
Cameras are a great example of retronyms in use.
“Remember way back when cameras used film? Back then, such devices were simply called cameras; they weren’t specifically called film cameras until they needed to be distinguished from the digital cameras that came later,” Merriam-Webster added.
How retronyms are formed
Linguist Adam Aleksic broke down how retronyms are created in a helpful video.
“A retronym is a new name given to an old thing to help differentiate it from a recent invention,” he said. “Like the way we use ‘acoustic’ guitar to differentiate from ‘electric’ guitar, even though ‘acoustic’ guitars use to just be ‘guitars’ because there were no ‘electric’ guitars.”
He offers a few more examples:
“Or when you have to say ‘analog’ watch to specify that what used to actually just be a regular watch is not in fact digital. That’s why ‘World War I’ is no longer ‘The Great War.’ We had to make a retronym for it once we had a second Great War. If you put ‘whole milk’ in ‘regular coffee,’ those are both retronyms because we’ve since invented things like ‘almond milk’ and ‘decaf coffee.’”
Aleksic explains that geography also has retronyms:
“The ‘East Indies’ used to just be the ‘Indies’ until Columbus rediscovered the ‘West Indies.’ And ‘Baja California’ used to just be ‘California’ until the Spaniards sailed a little further north and named what we now think of as ‘California.’ The ‘Continental U.S.’ was just the ‘U.S.’ until we added a few states.”
Finally, he explains another type of retronym: one that is a reduplication of an original word.
“If I want the ‘regular salad’ and not the ‘tuna salad,’ I can ask you to pass the ‘salad salad’ and you’ll know what I mean,” he said.
Examples of retronyms
The words below are a helpful list of retronyms:
- British English (distinguished from American English, Australian English, Indian English, etc.)
- Outdoor rock climbing (distinguished from indoor rock climbing)
- Acoustic guitar (distinguished from electric guitar)
- Cloth diaper (distinguished from paper diapers and disposable diapers)
- Manual typewriter (distinguished from electric typewriter)
- Scripted show (distinguished from reality show)
- Rotary phone (distinguished from touch-tone phones and landline phones)
- Combustible cigarette (distinguished from electronic cigarettes, e-cigarettes, etc.)
- Whole milk (distinguished from skim milk, 2% milk, etc.)
- Corn on the cob (distinguished from corn cut off the cob)
- Live music (distinguished from recorded music)
- Silent film (distinguished from sound films and talkies)
- Brick-and-mortar store (distinguished from online stores)
- Bar soap (distinguished from liquid soap and body wash)
- Old World (distinguished from New World)
- Analog watch (distinguished from digital watch)
- Film camera (distinguished from digital cameras, instant cameras, etc.)
- Snail mail (distinguished from email, etc.)
