Retro means deliberately in the style of an earlier time. Retro furniture, a retro look, retro gaming.
The deliberateness matters: something old is vintage, and something new made to look old is retro. Retro styling in cars, retro fonts and retro games are all recent things imitating older ones. As a prefix, retro- means backwards — retrospective, retrograde, retrofit. Note that what counts as retro moves constantly, and is roughly whatever was fashionable when the buyer's parents were young.
1adjectiveretroDeliberately in the style of an earlier time.
“The café has a retro look, with an old jukebox and red plastic seats.”
retro is a backward-looking style.
Latin retro means backwards. The modern adjective was clipped from French rétrograde in the 1960s and became independent, which is why it works as a whole word rather than only as a prefix.
Latin
retro
French
rétro
English, today
retro
French rétro, ultimately from Latin retro.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA