autonym - 09/20/05 03:15 AM
Today's word was autonym, but there was also a note about heteronym, homonym, toponym and retronym. I was a little uncomfortable with the content of the example given for retronym, which was, "a term coined to distinguish something due to a new development: analog computer, coined because now almost all computers are digital." Firstly I was uncomfortable because retronym seems like a neologism - I can't find it in any of my (paper) dictionaries, but mostly I was disconcerted by the reference to analog computers being an example of a retronym. The term 'analog computer' is not particularly new. Back when I started in computing, (a long time ago), we had both analog and digital machines, though the analog were mostly in academic settings. But there was considerable development effort being devoted to both and much argument as to the benefits of one over the other for different types of problem. Analog simply defines now, as it did then, a completely different approach to computing and, while digital computing generally won the day, especially on the commercial front, I am at a loss to see how the term in question can be an example of a retronym. Maybe I'm just thick, or maybe I'm just too old and 'analog' has some new meaning now, but I'm afraid that the example given just doesn't work for me. Sorry.
Jack
Jack