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Meta
is always a great word to know.
So is slumgullion. Does it mean:
| a stew of meat, vegetables, potatoes, etc. |
| a printed punctuation mark (‽), available only in some typefaces, designed to combine the question mark (?) and the exclamation point (!), indicating a mixture of query and interjection, as after a rhetorical question. |
Example Sentences
- But his theory lacks a meta law that would prescribe how and why the laws change from generation to generation.
- The contents of your description meta tags need to be screened for quotes.
- The meta puzzle answers provided us with those weapons.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
noun
a female given name.
meta-
1.
a prefix appearing in loanwords from Greek, with the meanings “after,” “along with,” “beyond,” “among,” “behind,” and productive in English on the Greek model: metacarpus; metagenesis; metalinguistics.
Also, especially before a vowel, met-.
Origin:
< Greek, prefix and preposition; cognate with Old English mid with, German mit, Gothic mith
< Greek, prefix and preposition; cognate with Old English mid with, German mit, Gothic mith
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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|
Link To meta
Collins
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Dictionary.com's 21st Century Lexicon
| Main Entry: | meta |
| Part of Speech: | adj |
| Definition: | self-referential; referring to itself or its characteristics, esp. as a parody; about |
| Example: | That book is so meta. |
| Etymology: | meta 'beyond' |
| Main Entry: | meta |
| Part of Speech: | n |
| Definition: | something with refers to itself, esp. in self-parodying manner |
| Example: | A movie-within-a-movie is an example of meta. |
| Etymology: | meta 'beyond' |
Etymonline
Word Origin & History
meta-
prefix meaning 1. "after, behind," 2. "changed, altered," 3. "higher, beyond," from Gk. meta (prep.) "in the midst of, in common with, by means of, in pursuit or quest of," from PIE *me- "in the middle" (cf. Goth. miþ, O.E. mið "with, together with, among;" see
EXPAND mid). Notion of "changing places with" probably led to senses "change of place, order, or nature," which was a principal meaning of the Gk. word when used as a prefix (but also denoting "community, participation; in common with; pursuing"). Third sense, "higher than, transcending, overarching, dealing with the most fundamental matters of," is due to misinterpretation of metaphysics as "science of that which transcends the physical." This has led to a prodigious erroneous extension in modern usage, with meta- affixed to the names of other sciences and disciplines, especially in the academic jargon of literary criticism, which affixes it to just about anything that moves and much that doesn't.
COLLAPSE
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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American Heritage
Medical Dictionary
meta- or met-
pref.
Later in time: metestrus.
At a later stage of development: metanephros.
Situated behind: metacarpus.
Change; transformation: metachromatism.
Alternation: metagenesis.
Beyond; transcending; more comprehensive: metapsychology.
At a higher state of development: metazoan.
Having undergone metamorphosis: metamyelocyte.
Derivative or related chemical substance: metaprotein.
Abbr. m- Of or relating to one of three possible isomers of a benzene ring with two attached chemical groups, in which the carbon atoms with attached groups are separated by one unsubstituted carbon atom. Usually used in italic: meta-dibromobenzene.
The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.
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Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.
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FOLDOC
Computing Dictionary
META definition
languageThe assembly language for the CYBER 200, developed at CDC ca 1977.
[CDC Pub 60256020].
[Jargon File]
(1994-11-16)
meta definition
philosophy/me't*/ or /may't*/ or (Commonwealth) /mee't*/ A prefix meaning one level of description higher. If X is some concept then meta-X is data about, or processes operating on, X.
For example, a metasyntax is syntax for specifying syntax, metalanguage is a language used to discuss language, meta-data is data about data, and meta-reasoning is reasoning about reasoning.
This is difficult to explain briefly, but much hacker humour turns on deliberate confusion between meta-levels.
[Jargon File]
(1999-04-06)
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