DEEn Dictionary De - En
DeEs De - Es
DePt De - Pt
 Vocabulary trainer

Spec. subjects Grammar Abbreviations Random search Preferences
Search in Sprachauswahl
Retronym
Search for:
Mini search box
 
English Dictionary: Retronym by the DICT Development Group
2 results for Retronym
From WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006) [wn]:
retronym
n
  1. a word introduced because an existing term has become inadequate; "Nobody ever heard of analog clocks until digital clocks became common, so `analog clock' is a retronym"
From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (15Feb98) [foldoc]:
   retronym
  
      A term invented to distinguish a subclass of things
      from new members of the superclass, where the distinction was
      previously not necessary, since the old subclass had been all
      there was of the superclass.
  
      For example, the retronyms "{snail mail}" and "{paper mail}"
      were coined by those for who "mail" was likely to mean
      {electronic mail}.
  
      While the English language in general has a few retronyms
      ("whole milk", "snow skiing", "acoustic guitar"), hacker
      jargon is necessarily (at points capriciously) rich in
      retronyms, e.g. {plaintext}, {natural language}, {impact
      printer}, {eyeball search}, biological {virus}.
  
      [More examples?]
  
      (2001-02-25)
  
  
No guarantee of accuracy or completeness!
©TU Chemnitz, 2006-2024
Your feedback:
Ad partners