Daily Writing Tips offered this review of my blog.
Double Dutch, babble ,balderdash, baloney, bilge, blather, bull, bunk, drivel, eyewash, gibberish, gobbledygook, guff, hogwash, jargon, mumbo jumbo, piffle, poppycock, prattle, tripe, and twaddle.
Tag Archive for 'daily writing tips'
Reading one of my favorite writing sites, Daily Writing Tips, I learned a new word that is just so appropo. Retronym.
It’s just such a perfect word for Baby Boomers who have seen so much change in technology.
Here’s the Oxford English Dictionary definition of retronym:
A neologism created for an existing object or concept because the exact meaning of the original term used for it has become ambiguous (usually as a result of a new development, technological advance, etc.). A retronym typically consists of the original term combined with a modifying word.
The best example is “movies.” When silent films were the standard, these were “movies.” Then “talkies” became the norm, and “silent-movies” was born. OK, Baby Boomers didn’t go through this phase, but remember when color movies were hot? And of course, Baby Boomers grew up with black and white television
I shared my new discovery with another boomer and she responded:
So when does a retronym become a idom? ‘Hang up’ or ‘Dial’ the phone for example. Seems the older one is, the more use s/he would have need for retronymity. Does that make oldsters more inclinded to be retronymists? Is it a special class in need of protection? Oh, the questions this raises!
Indeed! Baby Boomer language is archaic, or at least showing it’s age. She has examples of great idioms. But retroymns are different. Idioms are only figurative. Retronyms are literal, but have an adjective to describe the “oldster” version.
Some of my examples are words that have made the transition, some are going through transition, and some are future transitions.
Baby Boomers please feel free to add some examples:
(word today – retronym)
- sewing machine – treadle sewing machine
- camera – film camera
- guitar - acoustic guitar
- phone – landline phone
- pool – in ground pool
- television – analog television – also HiDef/StandardDef…lots of other television examples with black and white programming, flat screens, cable (it was on cable)
- watch – analog watch (and almost anything else with digital in front of it!)
- light bulb – could go a couple of ways: incandescent bulb if CFL’s catch on, or disappear if LED’s take over.
- computer – main frame computer (and that will change as cloud computing catches on)
- music – live music (in a club)
- Going Like Sixty – Going Like Sixty blog
Going Like Sixty used to mean somebody was really boogeying. Today it refers strictly and without question to my blog. 
Upcoming retronyms:
- car - petro car – when we all will be driving hybrids
- hips/knees - artificial hips/knees when the gummit decides that at age 50, all joints should be replaced.
- mail - postal mail
- boobs – natural boobs
- erection – drug free erection
- work – productive work
- welfare – unproductive work
Got any cool retronyms? Real or made up? Baby Boomer era, or not!
Daily Writing Tips says you will have some problems with the pronunciations of some of these bold face words if you read this aloud. Their opinion, not mine. I disagree with only one interpretation, but I mispronounce many more. See how you do and compare your language use to theirs.
Anyway, you ask about the candidate? She served in the cavalry in the Arctic one February.
This is the way I interpret her old-fashioned niche in America.
Being an athlete, clothes were not her forte. Irregardless, Halloween was an especially heinous time for her. She thrived on the chaos of the day and eschewed the beautiful foliage of the season. She was very mischievous and could orient herself in a manner that played to the height of medieval acts.
In Illinois, where she was born, barbed wire is not uncommon. Often, Realtors use it as a preventative to protect tracts of land. They were somewhat ticklish that a vehicle might have an incident and a person could end up drowned in a miniature lake, more commonly know as a pond, fishing hole, watering hole, et cetera.
Regardless, the candidate did not have the aegis to prevent a prescription for disaster. She needed a man. Someone who would serve as an asterisk to her legend. An accessory. The man she had her eye on had prostate problems, so sex wasn’t an issue. It was like he had been spayed. She had spotted him from the dias during the presentation of the Sherbet Cache Award, a lovely jewelry piece. (The Sherbet Cache Award was her’s alone. Long days at the library, studying the hierarchy of precipitation melt, her eyes would dilate as she tried to picture where the best snow drift would accumulate and secure the sherbet until spring.)
This is how Horse Force, Scary Fairy, Wire Spire, Silhouette Sherbet Cache Bash and Illinois Ploy became a part of our American folklore.
UPDATE: I think saying neesh for niche is too hoity-toity. I mispronounce miss-chiv-ous by saying mis-cheev-ious.
