Retronym

[fuzzyjay]

I saw this on the web and was taken aback:

"...the mobile HDDs also demonstrate reduced acoustic noise and are scheduled to ship next quarter, the spokesperson said." (emphasis added)

I guess it's acoustic as opposed to digital noise. It just seemed weird. It's another retronym thanks to the digital age.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Isn't it digital as opposed to analog? i'm not sure why they used the word acoustic with noise, as acoustic means relating to sound, and noise of course is sound...

[fuzzyjay.livejournal.com]

That's the irony of it all. Now that there's digital noise, we have to have a way of referring to the original type of noise... which is acoustic noise. Wikipedia has more examples of retronyms.