A retronym is a new word or phrase coined for an old object or concept whose original name has become used for something else or is no longer unique. "Retronym" is a neologism coined by Frank Mankiewicz [1] and popularized by William Safire [2] in 1980 in the New York Times. Many of these are created by advances in technology. Some examples:

• Acoustic guitar: Before the invention of the solid-body electric guitar, all guitars amplified the sound of a plucked string with a resonating hollow body. Similarly: acoustic piano.
• Analog (or analogue) watch: Before the advent of the digital watch, all watches had faces and hands. After the advent of the digital watch, watches with faces and hands became known as analog watches.
• Artistic gymnastics: Generally known simply as gymnastics before Rhythmic gymnastics was added to the Olympic program in 1984.
• Black-and-white television: Once called simply television, now the retronym is used to distinguish it from color television, which is now more commonly referred to by the unadorned term. Along the same lines: broadcast television, silent movie.
• Brick-and-mortar store, high street shop: As increasing use of the Internet allowed online stores, accessible only through computers, to compete with established retail shops, the latter began to be called "brick-and-mortar stores" or "high street shops" to indicate that customers could (in fact, had to) visit them to examine and purchase their goods. In the U.S., "brick-and-mortar" emphasizes the physical construction of these stores, as opposed to the largely electronic nature of online stores. In the UK, "high street" emphasizes the more traditional shopping venue, since the name "High Street" is commonly used in the UK for a town's primary retail thoroughfare. These two terms are also often used to describe the physical storefronts of a retail business that also sells products online.
• Byzantine Empire: The Byzantines considered themselves just the Roman Empire. Montesquieu considered that the Christianized Eastern Roman Empire was corrupt and not worthy of the prestigious "Roman" name.
• Cold water faucet/tap: Before the invention of the hot water heater, there was only the single faucet/tap at each sink.
• Day baseball: Baseball played during the day, as all games were played before electric lighting in stadiums became common.
• Desktop computer: Until portable, laptop, and notebook computers became popular, computers that fit on or below a desktop were often referred to as home computers or personal computers.
• Face-to-face conference: A conference, not involving telephones or video cameras (similarly:IRL-meeting = in-real-life meeting).
• Forward slash: Before the rise of Microsoft's MS-DOS computer operating system, with its frequent use of the backslash ("\") character in extended file names, the symbol "/" was known simply as a "slash" (also oblique, solidus or virgule). Calling it a "forward slash" became a useful expedient for distinguishing the two symbols; however, the two characters are often confused today.
• Finfish : A term used in the fishing industry to distinguish true fish from shellfish.
• French franc: The currency unit of France before the euro, which was originally the only franc, but had to be distinguished from the Belgian franc, Communauté Financière Africaine franc, and Swiss franc after those countries adopted the term.
• Hard cider: In Eurasia, "cider" refers to fermented (alcoholic) apple juice. In the U.S., cider often refers to non-alcoholic tangy or carbonated apple juice. "Hard cider" specifies the alcoholic version.
• Hard disk: All disks were hard (i.e., constructed of rigid instead of flexible magnetic material) until the advent of the floppy disk.
• Hot chocolate: In the days before the invention of sweet solid chocolate for eating, the word "chocolate" was usually used to refer to the drink; references to it in, say, Jane Austen's novels are confusing to the 21st century eye. For a while after the chocolate bar was invented it was referred to as "bar chocolate", but due to its stunning rise in popularity in the latter half of the 19th century it eventually laid claim to the basic word.
• Landline phone service: With the advent of cellular or mobile phone services, traditional hard-wired phone service became known as landline phones. (In the movie The Matrix a landline phone was also referred to as a "hardline".) Even though a considerable amount of landline phone traffic is transmitted via airwaves, this term comes from the physical cabling that provides the "last mile" connection between the customer premeses and local phone distribution centers. Because of the communications industry's love for acronyms, landline phone service has also been called POTS--Plain Old Telephone Service. The logical complement of this acronym, "PANS" became a backronym for "Pretty Amazing New Services". In the telecommunications industry the term wireline is used for landline phone services, to distinguish them from wireless or mobile phone services. Wireline is clearly another retronym.
• Latin America, Anglo-America: Since the term America is frequently associated (however controversially) with the United States of America, Latin America provides more precise identification of the largely Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking countries in the Americas. Likewise, the remaining, primarily English-speaking countries of the U.S.A. and Canada are sometimes referred to as Anglo-America, distinguishing them both from "America" and from North America, which includes Spanish-speaking Mexico.
• Live action: A form of a film that consists of images consisting of predominantly actual actors and objects that exist in the actual world, as opposed to an animated film, which predominantly consists of artificial static images or objects that take advantage of the persistence of vision principle of film to give an illusion of life.
• Live poker: What casinos call the kind of poker played with cards by people sitting at a table; what many others still just call "poker"; also called a "ring game". The term became necessary to distinguish it from video poker, which is far more common in casinos today.
• Mainframe computer: When minicomputers (which were the size and shape of a desk or credenza) were introduced in the early 1970s, existing systems that often consisted of multiple large racks of equipment received the portmanteau "mainframe", alluding to the vertical cabinets or "frames" in which they were installed.
• Manual transmission (Also standard transmission): Automotive transmissions were all manual, of course, before the invention of the automatic transmission.
• Meatspace, The Real World: All of physical reality, as distinguished from cyberspace.
• Natural language: A language, used by humans, that evolved naturally in its society. Contrast with computer programming languages or constructed languages. Often referred to as human language.
• Occitan language and Occitania: It was a neologism from the 19th century for the centuries-old set of Romance dialects that used oc for "yes".
• Over-the-board chess (also OTB chess): chess played in real time using a physical chessboard, as opposed to computer chess or correspondence chess.
• Paper copy, hard copy: With the proliferation of insubstantial and indistinguishable digital document copies, physical document copies acquired this retronym. Occasionally extended to the copying devices; i.e., paper copiers. The jocular substitute dead-tree copy is sometimes used. NOTE: The synonym hardcopy predates the digital age, apparently differentiating paper copies from microfilm and other human-unreadable forms.
• Parallel ATA (PATA): The original ATA interface was parallel; the qualification became necessary when Serial ATA was introduced.
• Prop airplane/aeroplane: As jet aircraft became the primary people movers of the airways, the older propeller-based technology received this occasional shorthand nickname to distinguish it.
• Rotary telephone: The kind of telephone in common use before touch-tone telephones.
• Pocket watch: Before the advent of the wristwatch, the word "watch" referred to watches carried in the pocket. After the advent of the wristwatch, the word watch referred to a watch worn on the wrist.
• Real tennis: was once known simply as tennis, but came into use at the end of the 19th century to distinguish it from the game of lawn tennis patented in 1874.
• Reel-to-reel or open reel tape recorders were originally simply tape recorders, as they all used a pair of open reels to hold the magnetic recording medium. The term reel-to-reel was introduced when various forms of cassette tape formats became popular.
• Sit-down restaurant: With the rise of fast-food and take-out restaurants, the "standard" restaurant received a new name.
• Snail mail (AKA land mail, paper mail, p-mail): Non-electronic mail delivered to physical locations, like one's home or business. Before email and vmail, all mail was physical.
• Star Trek is often referred to as Star Trek: The Original Series due to the multitude of spin-offs it spawned.
• Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope was originally released under the title Star Wars. Eventually Star Wars came to refer to the entire series and the new title was created for the 1977 film.
• Survivor: Pulau Tiga was broadcast as just Survivor. When the show subsequently used other locales, the location of the first season was added to the title to distinguish it.
• Vinyl record: A term that arose to distinguish 33⅓- and 45-rpm phonograph records (LPs and 45s) from the compact discs (CDs) that have since replaced them for nearly all physical records and record albums.
• World War I: Originally this was called "The Great War". However, when a second war enveloped Europe, it became necessary to distinguish them.

Some retronymic adjectives include:

• Analog/analogue: Describes non-digital devices: analog clock, analog recording.
• Conventional, classic, or traditional : Describes devices or methods that have been largely replaced or significantly supplemented by new ones. For example, conventional (non-microwave) oven.
  • The Boeing 747-100 and 747-200 are referred to by pilots as the 747-Classic to distinguish them from the newer 747-400.
  • In the '80s, the previous Coke flavor was reintroduced as "Coke Classic" after Coca-Cola's replacement "New Coke" flavor provoked a demand for the old formula.
• I, Sr.: When a child or a dynastic ruler receives a name identical to his or her predecessor, the original is often retroactively given the suffix Sr. (for family names) or the Roman numeral I (for dynasties and for three or more generations of families). Examples:
  • William I of Orange was called William during his lifetime.
  • Country singer Hank Williams became known as Hank Williams, Sr. when his son Randall Hank Williams adopted the stage name Hank Williams, Jr..
  • Note: Sr. (senior) and Jr. (junior) are usually used only for males.

Posthumous names awarded in East Asian cultures to royalty after their death can be considered retronyms too, although their birth names will remain unambiguous.

Anachronistic use of retronym can break the suspension of disbelief in historical fiction and betray a modern document forgery.

See also

• -onym
• backronym