How retro!
As people start to go out again after months of hanging out inside in sweatpants, some are reluctantly digging up and pulling on their “hard pants”—that is, pants with a zippered or buttoned waistband, like blue jeans. While the expression “hard pants” predates the pandemic, it’s become increasingly popular, and it looks like it might stick around for a while (and that’s not the only way the pandemic has changed the way we talk).
The expression “hard pants” is an example of a retronym, or a new term for an existing object or idea to distinguish it from a later development or invention. Before “soft pants” with elastic waistbands (think athleisure) were a mainstream thing, most pants were “hard pants.” It was only later that it became necessary to make the distinction. That’s how we ended up modifying “pants” to make the expression “hard pants.”
Inventions like elastic and changing social circumstances like, well, a pandemic spur changes in the language. We are going to take a look at a number of other retronyms, discuss what they mean, and learn a little bit about where these expressions come from. While some retronyms are a bit tongue-in-cheek like “hard pants,” you might be surprised to learn that everyday vocab like “acoustic guitar” is a retronym, too.