I learnt an interesting word today – retronym – a new name for something that already existings that distinguishes the original from a more recent version. For example, ebooks are becoming increasingly popular, so there’s a need for a new word for non-ebooks. On the program I heard the word retronym, Word of Mouth, they suggested pbooks, paper books or printed books for the non-electronic version. Do you have any other suggestions?
They also discussed phones – since the default phone for most people these days is a mobile/cell phone, there’s a need to a different word for a non-mobile phone. Home phone or landline were suggested. Do you have other words?
For more information about retronyms, see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retronym and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_retronyms
My favorite retronym is the Hebrew expression for “silent cinema”, קולנוע אילם. Literally, it means “mute cinema”, but it’s technically an oxymoron because when cinema was mute it was called ראינוע, and the modern word for cinema was invented specifically for “cinema with sound”, so that a retronym shouldn’t be needed. However, most people just aren’t aware of it.