retronym

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The Word of the Day for December 8 is:

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."  

Did you know?
     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 The names of such out-of-date 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."






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