Word of the Day: Meta

Word of the Day for Friday 30^th May 2014

Meta \ MET-uh \,

1. Pertaining to or noting a story, conversation, character, etc., that

consciously references or comments upon its own subject or features,

often in the form of parody: A movie about making movie is just so meta especially when the actors criticise the acting .

2. Pertaining to or noting an abstract, high-level analysis or commentary,

especially one that consciously references something of its own type.

noun:

1. A consciously and playfully self-referential story, conversation, etc.:

That dialogue was an example meta at its best .

2. An abstract, high-level analysis or commentary: writing a meta to

explain the character’s motivation .

verb:

1. To analyze or comment on something in a meta way: I spend more

time metaing about the show than actually watching it .

Quotes:

This is all meant to be very meta. In one arc, the Doom Patrol is able

to stop an imaginary world from taking over the real world when the

team finds a black book that tells the story of a black book about an

imaginary world taking over the real world.

-- Noah Berlatsky, "Grant Morrison's Doom Patrol: The Craziest

Superhero Story Ever Told," The Atlantic , 2014

The meta craze in criticism soon reached a point of parody about self-conscious parody.

-- William Safire, "What's the Meta?" The New York Times Magazine, 2005

Origin:

Meta can be traced to the Greek preposition of the same spelling meaning

"with," "after," "between." It entered English in the late 1800’s in the

context of chemistry.