Archive for the ‘Retronyms’ Category

Know your eels

December 18, 2015

From Facebook friends, this cute cartoon by Wayno:

(#1)

The composites electric eel and electric guitar, both with the pseudo-adjective electric, but in two different senses. Then there’s electric guitar vs. the retronym acoustic guitar (for what, until the introduction of electric guitars, was known simply as a guitar). Then

electric guitar : acoustic guitar  ::  electric eel : X

and X is acoustic eel.

(more…)