Product Code Database
A retronym is a newer name for something that disambiguation it from something else that is newer, similar, or seen in everyday life; thus, avoiding confusion between the two.
In 2000, The American Heritage Dictionary (4th edition) became the first major dictionary to include the word retronym.
The first bicycles with two wheels of equal size were called "" because they were easier to handle than the then-dominant style that had one large wheel and one small wheel, which then became known as an "ordinary" bicycle. Since the end of the 19th century, most bicycles have been expected to have two equal-sized wheels, and the other type has been renamed "penny-farthing" or "high-wheeler" bicycle.
The Atari Video Computer System platform was rebranded the "Atari 2600" (after its product code, CX-2600) in 1982 following the launch of its successor, the Atari 5200, and all hardware and software related to the platform were released under this new branding from that point on. Prior to that time, Atari often used the initialism "VCS" in official literature and other media, but colloquially the Video Computer System was often simply called "the Atari."Two usage examples are "Would you like to come over and play my Atari?" and "This Atari has gum in the cartridge slot, so it can't be played."
The first film in the Star Wars franchise released in 1977 was simply titled Star Wars. It was given the subtitle "Episode IV: A New Hope" for its 1981 theatrical re-release, shortly after the release of its sequel The Empire Strikes Back in 1980. Initially, this subtitle was limited to the opening text crawl, as all three films in the original Star Wars trilogy ( Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi) were still sold under their original theatrical titles on home media formats (such as VHS and Laserdisc). It was not until their 2004 DVD releases that the titles of the individual three films were changed to follow the same titling pattern as the Star Wars prequel trilogy (e.g. Star Wars Episode IV - A New Hope).
In the 1990s, when the Internet became widely popular and email accounts' instant delivery common, mail carried by the Mail came to be called "" for its slower delivery compared to email.
Advances in technology and science are often responsible for the coinage of retronyms. For example, the term acoustic guitar was coined with the advent of the electric guitar, analog watch was introduced to distinguish from the digital watch, push bike was created to distinguish from the motorized bicycle, and feature phone was coined to distinguish from the smartphone. Likewise, visible light refers to electromagnetic radiation on the narrow visible spectrum, and Ice was coined to distinguish the solid state of water (including exotic forms) from the solid state of other volatiles such as carbon dioxide and argon.
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