List of Retronyms - Retronymic Adjectives

Retronymic Adjectives

Analog/analogue

Describes non-digital devices:

• Analog clock: Before digital clocks, most clocks had faces and hands. See also: Analog watch.
• Analog synthesizer: Before synthesizers contained microchips, every stage of the internal electronic signal flow was analogous to a sound that would eventually be produced at the output stage, and this sound was shaped and altered as it passed through each filter and envelope.
• 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.
• 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, or conventional weapon (one which does not incorporate chemical, biological or nuclear payloads).

• Classic Leave It To Beaver : Used to distinguish the original series of the classic sitcom from the 1980s sequel, The New Leave It To Beaver. This retronym was used by TBS when both of these shows aired.
• Coca-Cola Classic : Originally called Coca-Cola, the name was changed when the original recipe was reintroduced after New Coke failed to catch on. This is an example of a retronym officially coined by a product's manufacturer.
• Conventional airplane : In the late 1940s and early 1950s, this term was used to distinguish piston-engined aircraft from the new jet types.
• Conventional landing gear : Term used in the 1940s to distinguish the traditional landing gear arrangement of two main wheels and a tail wheel (what is today called the "tail-dragger" type) from the newly introduced tricycle landing gear (two main wheels and a nose wheel).
• Conventional memory : term coined when MS-DOS and other operating systems for the IBM PC and other IBM-like x86 machines went over the 640k memory limit with tricks to access extra memory with different code to address it.
• Conventional oven : Before the development of the microwave oven, this term was not used. Now it is commonly found in cooking instructions for prepared foods.
• Conventional war : Before the development of nuclear weapons, this term was not used. (War, Gwynne Dyer)
• iPod classic (formerly iPod Video) : The original iPod in its latest generation has now been officially called the iPod classic, as every other iPod model currently uses a suffix to define itself.
• "Traditional Chinese characters" : Today Chinese people use Simplified Chinese characters

Civilian

Used to refer to items that are not of military quality or for military use, to differentiate them from the military version.

First

Used when there is a second, third, fourth, etc. version/incarnation of something. This is not always a retronym, e.g. in the case of rulers.

I, Senior, the Elder

When a dynastic ruler has or adopts the same name as a predecessor, the original is often retrospectively given the Roman numeral I. For example, the Dutch prince William I of Orange was just William during his lifetime. In the United States, names (typically of males) may also follow this convention, or the father may be given the suffix Senior (Sr.), with Junior (Jr.) for the son; Roman numerals would be used if the name is repeated again.

I or 1, also part 1, version 1, etc.

Also sometimes used to refer to the first incarnation of a movie, video game, etc. after sequels have been created, although such works are seldom renamed in this way officially. When Sony released the PlayStation 2, a redesigned version of the original PlayStation was also released under the name PSone.

Manual

Used to distinguish from automatic or electric versions.

• Manual transmissions in vehicles were just called "transmissions" until the invention of automatic transmissions.
• Manual typewriters were likewise just called "typewriters" until the invention of electric typewriters.

Old

• Naturally used when there is officially a "new" version of anything, to refer to the previous version. For example, when British money was decimalised and the new penny of 1/100 pound was adopted, the previous penny of 1/240 pound became known as the old penny.
• Old World of Darkness : The term used to refer to White Wolf Publishing's original World of Darkness line, which has since been followed by the New World of Darkness.

Offline

Computer users will sometimes agree to meet offline, i.e. face to face as opposed to online in an Internet-based chat room or other such means of electronic communication. Before the Internet became widely used, this was of course the only way to "meet" someone and the term to meet offline was unheard of.

Regular or plain

Used to refer to an original product after line-extensions are released. For example, one could formerly just ask for a Pepsi. But with the advent of multiple line-extensions like Diet Pepsi or Pepsi Max, one might ask for a regular Pepsi when one wants the original drink. Similarly, regular Oreo cookies were called that after Double Stuf Oreos and other varieties were released. Another example is in the United States regular gasoline (petrol or petroleum spirit outside the U.S.) has now come to mean 87 octane-rated unleaded (ratings in other countries vary). In the United States almost all gasoline had tetraethyl lead additive and was sold as either regular gasoline (octane rating of 89) or high test (octane ratings of 91 or higher until leaded petrol was phased out starting in the late 1970s when all new cars made since 1975 had catalytic converters.

• Plain M&M's: Plain M&M's candies (now Milk Chocolate) would not have been called that until 1954, when Peanut M&M's were introduced.
• Plain old telephone service (POTS): The term refers to the telephone service still available after the advent of more advanced forms of telephony, such as ISDN, mobile phones, and VoIP
• Plain text: Before word processing programs for computers with functions such as support for multiple fonts, underlining, bold/italic and other function came along, text files were simply just known as text.
• Farmall Regular : As explained at Farmall tractor, the name Farmall began as a model name but became a sub-brand name as additional models were developed.
• Regular coffee : The development of decaffeinated coffee led to this coinage.

Tabletop

Used to describe the original version of a board game or role-playing game once a video game version has been released.

Vanilla

Used to describe an unaltered, plain version of an item, most often in reference to software. For example, in computer games with expansion packs, it is used to distinguish the original version from subsequent versions, especially when the original game does not have a subtitle. For example, World of Warcraft could refer to either the original game or one of the three expansion packs, so users may refer to the original as "vanilla" to distinguish it from the subsequent versions.

Wired

Wired or hardwired refer to products such as telephones, headphones, speakers, computer accessories, etc., which are now available in wireless versions. Wireless telegraphy and wireless telephony were some of the first applications of radio technology, way back in the 1910s and 1920s; "wireless" as a noun today is sometimes simply a synonym for "mobile phone service"/"cell phone service".