Can you name the innovations that necessitated these new terms: “static billboard,” “wet signature,” “paper book,” “traditional cigarette”? Think “electronic” — electronic billboards, e-signatures, ...

Have you noticed that a number of simple nouns have recently acquired new adjectives? What we used to call, simply, “books,” for example, we now call hardcover books because of the production of ...

Example - " Nobody ever heard of analog clocks until digital clocks became common, so `analog clock' is a retronym" ...

Get it? It’s better explained through examples than a definition. Take the word “telephone.” When many of us were kids, we’d dial the telephone to reach the party we wanted. Then the “push-button ...

Retronyms are adjectival qualifiers, like “acoustic” guitar and “snail” mail, that were previously unneeded — because all guitars were acoustic and all mail was slow. We only added qualifiers when ...

“Retronym” is a word coined by Frank Mankiewicz, George McGovern’s campaign director, to delineate previously unnecessary distinctions. Examples include “acoustic guitar,” “analog watch,” “natural ...

Retronyms are adjectival qualifiers, like “acoustic” guitar and “snail” mail, that were previously unneeded — because all guitars were acoustic and all mail was slow. We only added qualifiers when ...

Last month’s sniper attacks in the Washington area forced officials there to invent a new term for homicides unrelated to the sniper: “traditional murders.” “Traditional murders” is a retronym, a word ...

Now we are seeing the retronym skirt suit, a combination jacket and matching skirt, to differentiate it from the disappearing pants suit, likely to make a comeback under another name not yet ...