There were a zillion prairie dogs in the Valles Caldera, but I couldn't get a good shot of any of them. The closest I got was one of a prairie dog butt as it dived into its hole. I had to borrow pictures from Chuck. Here they are, after the usual Photoshopping.
I am indebted to Chuck for recovering the word retronym (of which there are many examples). I had learned it long ago, then forgot the word while remembering the definition. Why does my brain do this?
A neologism created for an existing
object or concept because the exact meaning of the original term used
for it has become ambiguous (usually as a result of a new development,
technological advance, etc.).A retronym typically consists of the original term combined with a modifying word.
1980 W. Safire in N.Y. Times Mag. 27 July 8/1
Frank Mankiewicz, president of National Public Radio, collects these
terms and calls them ‘retronyms’—nouns that have taken an adjective to
stay up-to-date and to fend off newer terms. Other retronyms include
‘hard-cover book’.
1988 Washington Post
(Electronic ed.)
6 Nov. g1
True art lay elsewhere, probably in what we now, in a classic retronym, call ‘live drama’.
1995 I. L. AllenCity in Slang ix. 229
The name East Village was given..to borrow prestige from the name of Greenwich Village or just The Village, which then became known..by the retronym West Village.
2003 Edmonton
(Alberta)
Jrnl.
(Nexis)
22 Nov. a13
Older folks, who actually grew up when all clocks had moving hands,
phones had dials and wires, and milk was just plain old milk, are
usually familiar with both the item and its retronym (analogue clock,
rotary and land-line phones and whole milk).
retronym, n.
Third edition, March 2010; online version June 2012. <http://www.oed.com.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu/view/Entry/266828>; accessed 23 August 2012.
I spent a week in New Mexico. I saw five operas and one concert, hiked in Bandelier and the Valles Caldera, went to Santa Fe and Tesuque. Here are a few photos.