List of retronyms

This is a list of retronyms, which are terms renamed after something similar but newer has come into being.

Acoustic guitar: Before the invention of the solid-body electric guitar, all guitars amplified the sound of a plucked string with a resonating hollow body. Similarly: acoustic piano.
AM radio: Before the introduction of broadcast FM radio, the AM broadcast band radio would have been known simply as radio, wireless (in the UK) or as medium-wave radio (still the preferred term among radio enthusiasts) to distinguish it from the (also amplitude-modulated) shortwave radio bands.
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.
Artistic gymnastics: Generally known simply as gymnastics before Rhythmic gymnastics was added to the Olympic program in 1984.
Barnacle goose: Originally, the goose was simply referred to as a barnacle. Thought to spontaneously generate from wood left in water, both the goose and the crustacean were believed to be closely linked, with the former being thought of as a further developed form of the latter.
Black-and-white television: Once called simply television, now the retronym is used to distinguish it from color television, which is now more commonly referred to by the unadorned term. Along the same lines: broadcast television, free-to-air television, over-the-air television, silent movie. Furthermore, in the not too distant future, the term "Standard Definition Television" (or possibly "Low Definition Television") will become necessary once HDTV becomes the "normal" kind of TV.
Brick-and-mortar store, high street shop: As increasing use of the Internet allowed online stores, accessible only through computers, to compete with established retail shops, the latter began to be called "brick-and-mortar stores" or "high street shops" to indicate that customers could (in fact, had to) visit them to examine and purchase their goods. In the U.S., "brick-and-mortar" emphasizes the physical construction of these stores, as opposed to the largely electronic nature of online stores. In the UK, "high street" emphasizes the more traditional shopping venue, since the name "High Street" is commonly used in the UK for a town's primary retail thoroughfare. These two terms are also often used to describe the physical storefronts of a retail business that also sells products online.
George H.W. Bush: a rare example of a living person with a retronym. Until his son, George W. Bush, also became President, George Bush rarely, if ever, used his middle initials.
Byzantine Empire: The Byzantines considered themselves just the Roman Empire. Montesquieu considered that the Christianized Eastern Roman Empire was corrupt and not worthy of the prestigious "Roman" name.
Coca-Cola Classic: Originally called Coca-Cola, the name was changed when the original recipe was reintroduced after New Coke failed to catch on.
Cold water faucet/tap: Before the invention of the water heater, there was only the single faucet/tap at each sink.
Conventional War: Before the development of nuclear weapons, this term was not used. (War, Gwynne Dyer)
Day baseball: Baseball played during the day, as all games were played before electric lighting in stadiums became common.
Desktop computer: Until portable, laptop, and notebook computers became popular, computers that fit on or below a desktop were often referred to as home computers or personal computers.
Face-to-face conference: A conference, not involving telephones or video cameras (similarly:IRL-meeting = in-real-life meeting).
Field hockey: Known simply as "hockey" until ice hockey and roller hockey became popular. (In addition, there is a game called street hockey which evolved from roller hockey: this is hockey without skates, which is the same basic concept as the original game from which ice hockey and roller hockey evolved.)
Finfish: A term used in the fishing industry to distinguish true fish from shellfish.
First Gundam: A nickname, commonly used by Japanese fans of the franchise and coined shortly after the release of Zeta Gundam. Gundam 0079 is also used in the same fashion.
Forward slash: Before the rise of MS-DOS with its use of the backslash ("\") character in directory paths, the symbol "/" was known simply as a "slash". In the UK, the charcter was traditionally known as an oblique stroke or, more simply, an oblique. Slash meant to cut with scything motion or (more colloquially) to urinate.
French franc: The currency unit of France before the euro, which was originally the only franc, but had to be distinguished from the Belgian franc, Communauté Financière Africaine franc, and Swiss franc after those countries adopted the term.
Generation 1: A nickname used by fans of the Transformers toyline to refer to the original iteration of the product, released from 1984-1992 or therabouts. The term was derived from "Transformers: Generation 2", Hasbro's name for their revival of the franchise. The term has since occasionally been used in official Transformers products, most notably on Japanese toy packaging.
Hard cider: In Europe and Asia, "cider" refers to fermented (alcoholic) apple juice. In the U.S., "cider" often refers to non-alcoholic spiced or carbonated apple juice. "Hard cider" specifies the alcoholic version.
Hard disk: All disks were hard (i.e., constructed of rigid instead of flexible magnetic material) until the advent of the floppy disk.
Heterosexual: The term heterosexual was coined shortly after and opposite to the word "homosexual" by Karl Maria Kertbeny in 1868 and was first published in 1869.
Hot chocolate: In the days before the invention of sweet solid chocolate for eating, the word "chocolate" was usually used to refer to the drink; references to it in, say, Jane Austen's novels are confusing to the 21st century eye. For a while after the chocolate bar was invented it was referred to as "bar chocolate", but due to its stunning rise in popularity in the latter half of the 19th century it eventually laid claim to the basic word.
Landline phone service: With the advent of cellular or mobile phone services, traditional hard-wired phone service became popularly known as landline phones. Previously, this term was generally only used by military personnel and amateur radio operators. (In the movie The Matrix a landline phone was also referred to as a "hardline".) Even though a considerable amount of landline phone traffic is transmitted via airwaves, this term comes from the physical cabling that provides the "last mile" connection between the customer premises and local phone distribution centers. Because of the communications industry's love for acronyms, landline phone service has also been called POTS--Plain Old Telephone Service. The logical complement of this acronym, "PANS" became a backronym for "Pretty Amazing New Services". In the telecommunications industry the term wireline is used for landline phone services, to distinguish them from wireless or mobile phone services. Wireline is clearly another retronym.
Latin America, Anglo-America: Since the term America is frequently associated (however controversially) with the United States of America, Latin America provides more precise identification of the largely Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking countries in the Americas. Likewise, the remaining, primarily English-speaking countries of the U.S.A. and Canada are sometimes referred to as Anglo-America, distinguishing them both from "America" and from North America, which includes Spanish-speaking Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama and also Belize, which is English and Spanish-speaking.
Live action: A form of a film that consists of images consisting of predominantly actual actors and objects that exist in the actual world, as opposed to an animated film, which predominantly consists of artificial static images or objects that take advantage of the persistence of vision principle of film to give an illusion of life.
Live poker: What casinos call the kind of poker played with cards by people sitting at a table; what many others still just call "poker"; also called a "ring game". The term became necessary to distinguish it from video poker, which is far more common in casinos today.
Luggable computer: The first generation of computers marketed as "portable", such as the Kaypro or the Osborne series, were quite bulky and weighed about the same as a bowling ball. The weight was mostly due the fact they had a conventional CRT-type monitor built right in. When the first laptop computers came out, the earlier, heavier portable machines were suddenly referred to as "luggables".
Magic Kingdom: The original, and signature part of the Walt Disney World Resort; the one with the castle. Originally, if a person said he was going to "Disney World" they meant the Magic Kingdom. (Although Disney referred to that park as the Magic Kingdom right from the start, few people outside official channels used that term.) Even when EPCOT Center opened, most guests and travel agents referred to the two parks as "Disney World" and "EPCOT", and were even depicted as such on some maps, even though both parks are collectively part of Walt Disney World. However, as more theme parks such as the Disney-MGM Studios opened, the term Magic Kingdom would become used by the casual visitor more and more.
Mainframe computer: When minicomputers (which were the size and shape of a desk or credenza) were introduced in the early 1970s, existing systems that often consisted of multiple large racks of equipment received the name "mainframe", alluding to the vertical cabinets or "frames" in which they were installed.
Manual transmission (Also standard transmission): Automotive transmissions were all manual, of course, before the invention of the automatic transmission.
Meatspace: All of physical reality, as distinguished from cyberspace.
Natural language: A language, used by humans, that evolved naturally in its society. Contrast with computer programming languages or constructed languages. Often referred to as human language.
Over-the-board chess (also OTB chess): Chess played in real time using a physical chessboard, as opposed to computer chess or correspondence chess.
Paper copy, hard copy: With the proliferation of insubstantial and indistinguishable digital document copies, physical document copies acquired this retronym. Occasionally extended to the copying devices; i.e., paper copiers. The jocular substitute dead-tree copy is sometimes used. (The synonym hardcopy predates the digital age, apparently differentiating paper copies from microfilm and other human-unreadable forms.)
Parallel ATA (PATA): The original ATA interface was parallel; the qualification became necessary when Serial ATA was introduced.
Pedestrians: Known simply as "people" before transport was invented.
Prop plane: As jet aircraft became the primary people movers of the airways, the older propeller-based technology received this occasional shorthand nickname to distinguish it.
Real tennis: was once known simply as tennis, but came into use at the end of the 19th century to distinguish it from the game of lawn tennis patented in 1874.
Reel-to-reel or open reel: Tape recorders were originally simply tape recorders, as they all used a pair of open reels to hold the magnetic recording medium. The term reel-to-reel was introduced when various forms of cassette tape formats became popular.
Rotary telephone: The kind of telephone in common use before touch-tone telephones.
Scalar processors: As opposed to Vector processors.
Sit-down restaurant: With the rise of fast-food and take-out restaurants, the "standard" restaurant received a new name.
Snail mail (AKA land mail, paper mail, p-mail): Non-electronic mail delivered to physical locations, like one's home or business. Before email and voice mail, all mail was physical, and much slower by comparison — thus, the "Snail" appellation.
Solo motorcycle: So called instead of motorcycle when some were being built with a sidecar.
Star Trek: The Original Series: The series' actual title Star Trek is now often used to refer collectively to the original series and its multitude of spin-offs.
Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope: Originally released in 1977 under the title Star Wars. The new title was applied in a 1981 re-release after the decision to make additional films, allowing Star Wars to refer to the entire series.
Static electricity: see triboelectricity, below.
Survivor: Pulau Tiga: Broadcast as just Survivor. When the show subsequently used other locales, the location of the first season was added to the title to distinguish it.
Terrestrial Radio: As opposed to satellite radio.
Transformers: Generation 1: referring to the original Transformers toyline which ran from 1984 to 1992, and the assorted tie-in media. Then known only as "The Transformers," when the sequel series, Transformers: Generation 2 launched in 1993, all previous subject matter was dubbed "Generation 1" - many individuals did this independantly, as it is a logical progression, and when the online fandom began growing in the 90s, the term became the definitive one for that era. The term subsequently made it into official use through toy reissues and comic books.
Triboelectricity: Electricity was so named from the Greek word for amber, because of the discovery that if it was rubbed (generating what is now called triboelectricity) it would attract objects (due to a charge of static electricity). Electric currents and other forms of generation were discovered later.
Tube TV: Originally, all televisions used a cathode-ray tube to produce a TV image. But with the recent popularity of newer television technologies such as LCD, plasma, or DLP, some stores now describe the sets that still use a picture tube as tube TVs.
Vinyl record: A term that arose to distinguish 33⅓- and 45-rpm phonograph records (LPs and 45s) from the compact discs (CDs) that have since replaced them for nearly all physical records and record albums.
Water-activated stamps: The predominant kind of postage stamp before self-adhesive stamps became popular.
World War I: Originally this was called "The Great War" and commonly believed to be the war to end all wars. However, when a second war enveloped Europe, it became necessary to distinguish them. Similarly, the 1991 war in the Persian Gulf, formerly called "Desert Storm" or just the "Gulf War", is now often referred to as "The First Gulf War".

Geographic retronyms

Asia Minor: The name Asia was first applied to the mainland east of the Aegean islands, and later extended to the greater landmass of which that is a peninsula.
Baja California: The name California was first applied to the peninsula (thought to be an island), and later extended – and then restricted – to Alta California.
East Indies: After Columbus landed in the West Indies.
East Prussia: Prussia began as a duchy in Poland. As the highest-ranking dignity of the Hohenzollern dynasty, the name came to be applied to their territories stretching across Germany.
Great Britain: Britons fleeing the Germanic invasions settled in Armorica which became Brittany or Little Britannia.
Lower Saxony: The kingdom and duchies of Saxony are outside the original lowland territory of the Saxon people.
Washington, D.C.: was simply Washington or Washington City until the northern part of the Oregon Territory became Washington (state).

Retronymic adjectives

Analog/analogue: Describes non-digital devices: analog clock, 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.
I, Senior, the Elder: When a dynastic ruler has or adopts a name identical to his or her predecessor, the original is often retroactively given the Roman numeral I. For example, William I of Orange was called William during his lifetime. 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.
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.
offline: Computer users will sometimes agree to meet offline, i.e. in person 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.
Roman Catholic: The qualification Roman is vaguely self-contradictory, the essential meaning of the word catholic being universal.
Wired: Refers to products such as telephones, headphones, speakers, computer accessories, etc, which are now available in wireless versions.