The other day, I sought an ad for pork bacon, and my first thought was, isn't that just

bacon?

But actually, it isn't, because now we have alternatives like turkey bacon.

Pork bacon is an example of a retro name, a creation that describes something that used

to be the only version of its kind.

Think of a manual typewriter, an analog clock, or even a handwritten note.

Grammar girl here, I'm in the on-fogarty, your friendly guide to the English language.

Stick around, because after we talk about retranims, we'll talk about tight writing.

Retranim is a relatively new word.

No dictionary included it until the year 2000, according to an article in the Wisconsin

State Journal, which also pins 1980, as the year the term was coined by Frank Mankowicz.

Quote a broadcaster and journalist who was at one time Senator Robert Kennedy's press

secretary, unquote.

It combines retro, Latin for before, and nim, Greek for name.

So a retranim is literally a before name.

We covered retranims in general way back in episode 372, but today we're going to look

more closely at the specific retranim, acoustic guitar, which is used to distinguish

plain old guitars from electric guitars, because the word acoustic seems like it might

be breaking the bonds that tie it to the word guitar and is being used to mean all kinds

of non-electric things.

I discovered this development when I posted about pork bacon on mastodon, and my followers

quickly replied with comments about the word acoustic taking on a new role as a retranim

...