another word of the day since it's been so long since I posted any

retronym \REH-troh-nim\ noun
: a term consisting of a noun and a modifier which specifies the original meaning of the noun

Example sentence:
When Bob asked Donna what a retronym was, she looked around the room for an example and said "rotary phone."


If you?re planning to buy a TV anytime soon, be sure to do plenty of research. Nowadays, there are so many options using state-of-the-art technology -- from projection sets to LCD and plasma ones -- that the box television with the convex screen you might be replacing with a flat-screen television is... well, retro. And if you still have a console television set, a trip to a big-box store might be in your very near future. The names of such out-of-date technology, like "console television set," are examples of retronyms. The oldest print usage that we know of for the word "retronym" itself is from William Safire's column "On Language" in a 1980 issue of _The New York Times_. There, he discusses how then-president of National Public Radio, Frank Mankiewicz, collects what he calls "retronyms."