| 释义 |
retronym
ret·ro·nym R0199150 (rĕt′rə-nĭm′)n. A word or phrase created because an existing term that was once used alone needs to be distinguished from a term referring to a new development, as acoustic guitar in contrast to electric guitar or analog watch in contrast to digital watch.
[retr(o)- + -onym.]retronym (ˈrɛtrənɪm) n (Linguistics) a new word coined for an existing or older thing to distinguish it from something newer or more recentret•ro•nym (ˈrɛ trə nɪm)
n. a term, such as acoustic guitar, coined in modification of the original referent that was used alone, such as guitar, to distinguish it from a later contrastive development, such as electric guitar. [1990–95, Amer.; retro- + -nym, as in homonym] Thesaurus| Noun | 1. | retronym - 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"word - a unit of language that native speakers can identify; "words are the blocks from which sentences are made"; "he hardly said ten words all morning" |
Translations
retronym
retronym (jargon)A term invented to distinguish a subclass of thingsfrom new members of the superclass, where the distinction waspreviously not necessary, since the old subclass had been allthere was of the superclass.
For example, the retronyms "snail mail" and "paper mail"were coined by those for who "mail" was likely to meanelectronic mail.
While the English language in general has a few retronyms("whole milk", "snow skiing", "acoustic guitar"), hackerjargon is necessarily (at points capriciously) rich inretronyms, e.g. plaintext, natural language, impact printer, eyeball search, biological virus.
retronym
Words related to retronymnoun a word introduced because an existing term has become inadequateRelated Words |