tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Dec 06 13:21:35 2010
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RE: latlh mu' chu'
If we're looking for a Klingon term, "retronyms" could be considered a form of {no' Hol}, maybe even {mu'mey Doy'}. Can anyone think of other Klingon retronyms other than {nagh beQ}?
--
Voragh
Ca'Non Master of the Klingons
>-----Original Message-----
>While it is not exactly what you are looking for, the word "retronym"
>comes to mind. The classic example is "analog watch", which was not a
>term used at all before the advent of the "digital watch". Before that,
>the thing on your wrist with hands that moved around and told you what
>time it is was just called a watch.
>
>But there are many examples, like going to see a film (even if it is
>digital), or tape recording a meeting (even if it's a digital
>recording), or "riding shotgun" in a car (even though that's a term from
>horse-drawn stage coaches), or when you say that it's "eleven o'clock",
>which is a term invented to differentiate time determined by looking at
>the Sun vs. time determined by looking at a clock (when clocks were new
>and rare), or when you say that you "wipe a hard drive" (the word wipe
>meant a lot of things before hard drives were invented, but erasing
>magnetic information was not on the list for the majority of the history
>of the use of the word "wipe"). Ditto for "calling" someone on a phone.
>"Call" was something you did across a field to get someone's attention.
>For that matter, there's "hello", which was also something you called
>across a field to get someone's attention. And "going postal" has had a
>bit of new meaning applied to it, as has "walking the Appalachian Trail!".
>
>pItlh.
>lojmIt tI'wI' nuv
>
>
>
>On Dec 6, 2010, at 3:28 PM, Felix Malmenbeck wrote:
>> Is there a good word for words that have grown to mean something other
>than their original, literal meanings due to everyday use?
>>
>>