Is there a name for this phenomenon? [duplicate]

I'm looking for a term to describe the phenomenon where a term with a once literal and direct meaning is carried on or borrowed to refer to something that is either only remotely related or completely unrelated to the original meaning. This is mainly related to the process whereby technology is replaced or made obsolete by newer technology, but the terminology is reused to refer to elements of the newer technology.

For example, once upon a time, typewriters were the primary means of producing documents. The paper would be fed around a drum, which sat atop a carriage that would advance from right to left with each keystroke in order to reposition the target on the page where the typebars would land. When finished typing a line on a manual typewriter, the typist would have to manually return the carriage to its home position at the right. After returning the carriage, the typist would have to feed the paper to the next line by turning the drum. Automatic typewriters would accomplish this set of tasks with a single button, known as the "return" button. The "shift" button would shift all of the typebars downward so that the uppercase letter embossed on each typebar would strike the ink ribbon instead of the lowercase letter.

Today, we don't use typewriters at all, and so we don't have any carriages to return, any physical pages to feed, or any typebars to shift, but we still have the terms "carriage return" and "line feed", which refer to specific ASCII characters, and the "shift" key.

For another example, once upon a time, carriages were the primary means of long distance transportation. To protect the driver and passengers from being covered in mud dashed up by the pulling horses, carriages would have an angled board affixed to the front of the carriage. This debris-blocking feature was known as a "dashboard".

As automobiles replaced carriages as the popular means of personal wheeled locomotion, the term "dashboard" came to be used to describe the board that sits in front of the driver and front passenger(s) in which the instrument panel and glove box are mounted. Other than the fact that it is mounted somewhere in front of the riders in a wheeled vehicle, it has no relation to the original meaning of the word "dashboard".

Is there a term that describes this phenomenon? Or rather, is there a term for a class of words such as these that have been orphaned, so to speak, from their original meanings? (Something that would satisfy the statement "The terms 'carriage return', 'line feed', and 'dashboard' are all _______s.")

EDIT: While the term "holdover" certainly applies, it does not provide the level of precision that I'm seeking. I'm looking for a term that describes these kind of terms using the kind of precision with which "skeuomorph" describes holdovers in user interfaces and aesthetics.

Perhaps the recently-coined term "skeuonym" would be most precise, were it to be commonly accepted.

Solution 1:

The terms 'carriage return', 'line feed', and 'dashboard' are all terms that have undergone semantic changes. Per Wikipedia:

Semantic change (or semantic shift, semantic progression, or semantic drift) is the evolution of word usage — often where the modern meaning is radically different from the original usage.