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Is there a word that means "outdated name"? For example:

  • Record, although very little music is on vinyl
  • Film, although most movies are digital
  • Horsepower, although no one uses horses as a metric anymore
  • Phone, although it's mostly used to access the web

and so on.

RegDwigнt
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Patrick Perini
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    How about 'old fashioned'? +1 –  Jun 25 '12 at 18:34
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    Also, "sail" across the sea and "dial" a number. – Gnubie Jun 25 '12 at 18:37
  • Anyone think of anymore? Could be interesting to list them here in the comments. – user606723 Jun 25 '12 at 20:49
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    Is the term "horsepower" really outdated if it's a standard measurement unit? It doesn't fall into the same category of archaic measurement unit that "fortnight" would. – oosterwal Jun 25 '12 at 22:04
  • This isn't relevant to the question, but I don't think I would say "most" movies are digital yet, although it's headed that way. Lots of movies are still shot on film, and most are still projected from film. – Matthew Crumley Jun 25 '12 at 23:42
  • @MatthewCrumley: It depends on where you live. In the US, it is difficult to find theaters showing any movies on film. – Dietrich Epp Jun 26 '12 at 02:15
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    @Gnubie A few years back some radio talk show host noted that "dial" doesn't really make sense as we no longer actually dial phones, and so he announced a contest for people to send in new words or phrases. A week later he announced the winning entry: "digitally initiate audio link". Of course that's a long and cumbersome phrase, but the sumibtter suggested that for everyday use people could use the acronym: DIAL. – Jay Jun 26 '12 at 13:41
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    @oosterwal The poster isn't saying that these words are no longer used, but rather that they are "outdated" in the sense that their literal meaning or roots are no longer applicable. As I think about this now I'd quibble. "Film": yes, as movies become digital, this is anachronistic. But there's no such issue with his other examples. "Phone" is short for "telephone" which comes from the Greek for "far sound". That word implies nothing about whether the sound is transmitted digitally over the Internet or by analog signals over traditional phone wires. "Horsepower" measures power ... – Jay Jun 26 '12 at 13:47
  • ... in comparison to what a "standard draft horse" can produce. It doesn't imply that the power is actually being produced by horses. Quite the contrary, it was invented when steam engines came along precisely to give a way to measure power NOT produced by horses. When people really did use horses, they didn't say, "This is a 4 horsepower wagon", they said, "This wagon is pulled by 4 horses." And I don't think I've ever heard someone call a CD or MP3 download a "record", so I think that's a moot point. – Jay Jun 26 '12 at 13:52
  • @Jay: Agreed. In that case I offer "roll", as in "roll up the window." There are plenty of cars that still use the hand cranks, but powered windows seem to be the norm these days. – oosterwal Jun 26 '12 at 14:59
  • @Jay: For the phone example, the OP notes that today's phones are typically not used for transmitting sound, but rather for browsing the Web. Fewer and fewer people even have land-line phones anymore, and "smartphones" are basically small computers more than they are portable telephones. – John Y Jun 26 '12 at 22:26
  • @JohnY Well, okay, to the extent that you use your phone as a web browser, it's not really a "phone". Personally I used the browser feature on my phone about twice, so I guess I missed the point he was trying to make. – Jay Jun 27 '12 at 13:20
  • This is reminiscent of the whole floppy disc for save icon gui argument that went down recently (e.g. http://www.hanselman.com/blog/TheFloppyDiskMeansSaveAnd14OtherOldPeopleIconsThatDontMakeSenseAnymore.aspx). – Ben Lee Jul 05 '12 at 23:25

8 Answers8

48

These terms are holdovers from a previous era.

karan.dodia
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    Interesting suggestion. I'd go so far as to say that these are linguistic holdovers, in that it's not so much the technology or the medium that survived, but the words that persisted. (One of my favorites is glove compartment. Every now and then, I've heard people refer to the refrigerator as an icebox, too. Funny how they still call those things you get at a hotel a key. Okay, I'll get off my soapbox now...) – J.R. Jun 25 '12 at 20:22
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    This is a better choice than anachronism (see also comments at @JLG's answer). – John Y Jun 25 '12 at 23:07
15

You could say that it's an anachronism.

FrustratedWithFormsDesigner
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    An anachronism is something out of its own time, e.g. a television in Victorian London, or people using muskets in a space battle. – Ben Jun 25 '12 at 23:31
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    -1 As @Ben notes, an anachronism is something in the wrong time period (like everything in the Flinstones) which is not what the OP is describing. – Dave Jun 26 '12 at 07:24
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    @Ben, Dave. But a full-rigged ship today would definitely be a tangible anachronism: I don't think OPs context is too much of a stretch. – Tim Lymington Jun 26 '12 at 11:47
11

Such expressions are perhaps edging towards fossilised metaphor.

Barrie England
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10

Archaism is defined as: An archaic word, phrase, idiom, or other expression.

And archaic itself has a linguistics-related definition (see #3 below)

archaic [ɑːˈkeɪɪk] adj 1. belonging to or characteristic of a much earlier period; ancient 2. out of date; antiquated an archaic prison system 3. (Linguistics) (of idiom, vocabulary, etc.) characteristic of an earlier period of a language and not in ordinary use

JLG
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    Archaic words are those words which are no longer in everyday use but sometimes used to impart an old-fashioned flavor. –  Jun 25 '12 at 19:13
  • @rudra, You could argue that the words in the OP's question belong to an earlier period and are out of date (using my definition). – JLG Jun 25 '12 at 19:21
  • OP is looking for a term for words in current use; the definition cited in this answer clearly identifies "archaic" as a term for words not in current use. – MetaEd Jun 25 '12 at 19:24
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    +1 I think this word can be used in some colloquial context to emphatize the old-fashiond usage of some terms. –  Jun 25 '12 at 19:37
  • I don't think anachronism is quite right, either, though, based on its definition. I personally voted for holdover. – JLG Jun 25 '12 at 19:57
  • I think anachronism is simply wrong. – Frankie Jun 25 '12 at 23:02
  • I suggest a neologism (or should I say neologue): Anachronym. My favorite is turn on. Why do we turn on a light or other appliance by flipping up a switch if not because the name harks back to the time when oil or gas lamps (and many other devices) turned on and off by means of a knob or wing nut to open or close a valve or potentiometer? – H Stephen Straight Jun 26 '12 at 21:33
  • @HStephenStraight, see chaos' answer where he suggests just that word. – JLG Jun 26 '12 at 22:45
  • This is the correct and best answer. – Ben Apr 25 '13 at 08:44
3

I think the best possible word for this is anachronym.

chaos
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3

Antiquated

is probably a good fit (antiquated terms/terminology):

an·ti·quat·ed/ˈantiˌkwātid/Adjective: Old-fashioned or outdated.
Synonyms: obsolete - out-of-date - old-fashioned - outdated

or

outmoded

.

Wolf5370
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0

Deprecated? Although it sounds like you want a noun.

ricewhite
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  • Do you mean depreciated - or do you really disaprove of the terms? :) – Wolf5370 Jun 26 '12 at 19:03
  • @Wolf5370 — Deprecated is a computer programming term used for e.g. some function in a language that can still be used but is discouraged because something better has been provided. Generally there is a threat that the deprecated function will be withdrawn at some later stage. See, e.g. this Stack Overflow post — It's not a very good answer in my opinion, but that's another matter. – David Jun 22 '17 at 20:39
0

They're perhaps "stabilized" or "commemorative" metaphors more than "fossilized" ones in that nothing better has come along.

Their common appeal is that they have a sense of immediacy and tactile quality to them: the hand on the phone set to dial, the glove in the compartment, the ship gliding on the sea - even film (over video) has a sensuous quality - its thinness, the image of a film of oil floating on water comes to mind.

jitard
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