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  1. retronym love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. 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.

Wiktionary

  1. n. 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 (such as acoustic guitar where guitar used to mean this but can now also refer to an electric guitar).

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. a word introduced because an existing term has become inadequate

Etymologies

  1. retro- + -onym; coined by Frank Mankiewicz and popularized by William Safire in The New York Times (Wiktionary)
  2. retr(o)- + -onym. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

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‘retronym’ has been looked up 3353 times, loved by 7 people, added to 46 lists, and has a Scrabble score of 13.