Is there a particular word for nouns (or other words, I guess) that used to be self-descriptive but have since evolved? For instance, the word "blueprint" was coined because the diagrams were made through cyanotype process and were indeed blue prints. Now, they're made on a computer and as far as I know are no longer blue.

I can't imagine there's NOT a word for this, but I haven't been able to come up with the right combination of terms for google to spit it out. Thanks!

Hello, and welcome.
I will have to give it some thought myself, but some of our
more brilliant posters will respond soon, I'm sure.

In general, I would call it semantic drift (or language change). Some words, like to dial (a phone), blueprint, and blackboard (green or white), have a morpheme in them that is still transparent (the color words or the shape of a telephone dial), but others, like file, no longer do. But, if there is a term, tsuwm should have it and give it to us real soon.

File: from the word in Latin filum 'thread' for the red thread that held together multiple page documents. This morphed into a manila folder for filing papers, and now has become a named collection of bytes on some magnetic media. (Although, I suppose a string of bytes is still somehow connected to a thread.)

I'm not sure if there is (yet) such a word; but it's definitely related to the retronym, wherein a retronym is usually defined as a new name for an object or concept to differentiate the original form or version of it from a more recent form or version; e.g., analog watch, landline, and snail mail. in other words, when the old style of blueprints start to be referred to mostly as cyanotypes, the latter term would be a retronym.

(retronym, as a concept, was first introduced in these fora nearly ten years ago (YCLIU). it was actually coined by Frank Mankiewicz in 1980 and popularized by William Safire in The New York Times in the 90s. here is a more recent Safire essay.)

in other words, when the old style of blueprints start to be referred to mostly as cyanotypes, the latter term would be a retronym.

Which (I try to understand you well) is the opposite of what McMama is asking for? Yet it seems a bit strange that a word that catches up with a new appearence of a concept/word ( blueprint-cyanotype) is called 'retro'.
Would it not fit better a word that keeps its old appearance when having evolved to a new meaning? (excuse my grammar)

I did not suggest that we call blueprint itself a retronym. when I said this is *related to the retronym, I meant *related. I no longer like using the word opposite since (as we've seen in the past) opposite can go in so many directions.

you know, for instance brother and sister are related and opposite. : )

>Would it not fit better a word that keeps its old appearance when having evolved to a new meaning?

excusing your grammar (per request), I'll again refer you to a current popular form. when you give someone your phone number, it's quite likely to be for your call phone; and if it's not you're likely to say something such as, "that's my land-line".
land-line being the retronym in this case.

aside: the spellchecker here rejects landline in favor of land-line; an example of changing orthography, as landline is preferred to both 'land line' and land-line by many online dictionaries; e.g., wiktionary

-joe (context, context, context) friday

Speaking of which: is it e-mail or email?

Speaking of which: is it e-mail or email?

Either. I've seen both.

Over here email also means 'enemal', but nevertheless we like to write email for both concepts. As our contextual artist tsuwm brought up the word, we rely on context, context, context.

Email is 'enamel' in German, too.

Not to "mock" your words over there, but that sounds too much
like a procedure I could do without.