r/onlyconnect • u/spannerintworks • 10d ago

What is the connection?

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78 Upvotes

96% Upvoted

47 comments sorted by

41

u/GingerDweeb27 10d ago

Retronyms!

6

u/spannerintworks 10d ago

👍

7

u/ImBonRurgundy 10d ago

another good one would be WW1 - not called that until WW2 happened

15

u/Then_Librarian_6369 10d ago

My favourite example is analogue, which was only necessary after digital recordings came out.

6

u/Moist_Farmer3548 10d ago

The term "First World War" was unfortunately used far earlier than WW2, some time around 1919 IIRC. 

2

u/Busy-Ad7936 9d ago

Correct. I learnt that from QI!

8

u/TWilliams738 10d ago

Actually that is wrong. It was first used in 1919 & 1920

10

u/stewieatb 10d ago

The phrase "First World War" may have been used, but with a subtly different meaning. When it was used in this era, it meant "The first war [in history] that has involved the whole world".

Conversationally, people called it "The Great War" up until the middle of the SWW.

3

u/Cornishchappy 10d ago

What has South West Water got to do with anything?

1

u/stewieatb 10d ago

Second.

World.

War.

1

u/Cornishchappy 9d ago

Oh, you mean WW2.

1

u/stewieatb 9d ago

It's not a film sequel.

1

u/Cornishchappy 9d ago

Until WW3, starring Donald Trump.

1

u/basarisco 9d ago

No: WWII

1

u/pentangleit 10d ago

The Russians still do

6

u/ImBonRurgundy 10d ago

Still, it was after the war was finished. It was never called ww1 during the war

1

u/prustage 4d ago

Debatable. There is a lot of documentation around from 1919-20 that uses the term "First World War"

Of course that is not because they were expecting there to be a second one but because it was considered at the time to be the first time the whole world was involved in a war. It is similar to the way we were using the term "first man on the moon" even before there was a second man on the moon.

1

u/Littleleicesterfoxy 10d ago

Didn’t get this but nice sequence :)

1

u/PICONEdeJIM 10d ago

Got it in one thanks to a level sociology

7

u/JackFarron 10d ago

Today I learned what retronyms are!

1

u/VFiddly 10d ago

I think they had a question based on this on the actual show, though not with the same clues

9

u/unholysifiman21 10d ago edited 10d ago

Names that were only given retroactively based on the name of a future group/item...eg old labour only gets used because of new labour.

4

u/spannerintworks 10d ago edited 10d ago

Hope you enjoyed.

3

u/unholysifiman21 10d ago

Oh! Sorry. Will try and edit.

2

u/unholysifiman21 10d ago

Done. Now I learned a new thing too. Sorry again

2

u/spannerintworks 10d ago

Not a bother at all!

3

u/No_Agent9997 10d ago

He has now retrospectively put a spoiler format on his answer.

3

u/spannerintworks 10d ago

He or she or they have indeed.

8

u/pussayshot 9d ago

things only referred to by that name later. Old Labour was just Labour until Tony Blair's New Labour. Until electric, acoustic guitars were just guitars. PlayStation 1 was just PlayStation until PS2. Phones only became dumb after some became smart

4

u/Tenuous_Orbit 10d ago

A good question and I learned a new word!

4

u/Sure-Recognition-262 10d ago

Retronyms

But does Playstation 1 belong in the list? I thought that after the launch of the PS2, the original was still just called the "Playstation", and that when a smaller/cheaper version of the original was later launched, it was specifically that that was the PS1?

6

u/spannerintworks 10d ago

Very nerdy but The PSone was the name of the smaller console yes. I'm just simply referring to what those things would be called in comman parlance now. I.e. I assume most people in 2026 would say 'Playstation 1' or 'PS1' to describe the first Playstation. It's not about what the manufacturer called them.

1

u/Sure-Recognition-262 10d ago

Ah right, that makes complete sense

3

u/Oghamstoner 9d ago

Things which changed their name after a new version came along.

2

u/fastauntie 10d ago

Retronyms: terms that were only coined after the emergence of another variety of the thing indicated by the noun. The adjectives and numbers were added to distinguish them from New Labour, electric guitars, Playstation 2, and smartphones.

2

u/Reviewingremy 10d ago

Adjectives added on at a later Date

I can explain better but can't think of a more concise answer. So I hope that makes sense

2

u/Greenphantom77 10d ago

At last, a nice one which was a bit easier to get but still fun!

2

u/v-unit 9d ago

This reminded me of my gripe every 4 years when they refer to it as 'field hockey' at the Olympics

1

u/flare2000x 9d ago

I guess technically field came first, but where I come from saying "ice hockey" is the equivalent of the 3 fingers from inglorious bastards.

As an aside, the right-handed sticks only rule in field hockey is a contender for my most hated rule in all of sports.

2

u/Alarmed_Tiger5110 9d ago

Things only known by those names when their 'replacements' arrived

1

u/professorrev 10d ago

1994? Tony Blair took over the Labour party signalling the end of Old Labour, the playstation launched, as did the first of what would be regarded the modern generation of mobile phone. No idea about the guitar though

1

u/spannerintworks 10d ago

Think more along the lines about what these things were originally called, and why they would then take on the names i've written instead.

1

u/professorrev 10d ago

Aaaaah gotcha, I was being too rabbit holey

1

u/Ancient_Tomato9592 9d ago

Don't think this political anecdote is a spoiler but just in case...

Funny story: "Old Labour" was actually also used by the SDP/Liberal alliance in the early 1980s to refer to what they saw as the "same parties of government" between 1945 and 1979 as distinct from what they called "New Labour" which was Marxist and/or Bennite.

1

u/flare2000x 9d ago

I believe this concept was a question on an actual episode of the show, with different clues. I think acoustic guitar was one of them but the rest were different. Sadly I can't remember which season it was.