There’s a word I’m looking for, but I can’t figure out what it is.
At Trivia Night the other night, my friend brought a friend whom it turned out I already knew. It turned out that the first friend had met both of us through another particular friend (who wasn’t there). There was this weird tangle of acquaintances going on, and I said, “Wow, it’s kind of like Friendster.”
But of course, it’s not kind of like Friendster; Friendster is kind of like it. Friendster was created to reflect something that already existed in the world — the social web that connects us all — yet Friendster itself has become so embedded in Gen-X social culture that it has co-opted the naturally-occurring concept upon which it is based.
I noted this fact, and then I mentioned that I thought there was a word to describe what happens when a word’s definition expands to include a concept that existed before the word itself existed. Sort of like a reverse anachronism. My friend came up with “semantic retrograde,” but I don’t think that’s it.
This is killing me. Can anyone help me out?
How about a Proprietary Eponym?? See http://www.prairienet.org/~rkrause/brands.html
It sounds exactly like what you’re looking for based on the article above.
Hope this helps.
Hmm, that’s an example of the general concept… but I was thinking of something that covers more than just brand names. (Cool link, though!)
How about “coinage”? I know we usually think of that term to mean the creation of a whole new word that’s never been used for another concept before, but really, when a word used to describe concept A begins to be used to describe concept B as well, aren’t we really creating a new word, one that would get a separate entry in the dictionary?
Well, again, I’m thinking of something specific. And I don’t think “coinage” is right, anyway, because what I’m thinking of involves using an existing word as opposed to creating a new word.
Maybe this effort is in vain…
Hi,
I’ve become quite obsessed with the search for this word you’re looking for, because I know it’s out there. Unfortunately, I can’t remember it. The closest I can come up with are the words metonymy and genericization, although the latter only applies to brand names and isn’t an actual word (yet).
I hope that when you do find the correct word, you’ll share it, because it’s so frustrating!