"meta"

Wed Aug 2 15:46:11 UTC 2006

 Though it's sometimes hard to say what is a Buffy thing, it's a little easier to say what isn't -- meta's not slayer slang, at least not "canonical" slayer slang. It would be interesting to figure out where it appears, though, and whether it belongs to a community on the Web, as some post-slayer slang belongs to the post-BtVS television chat room community.

 -----Original Message-----
 From: laurence.horn at YALE.EDU
 To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
 Sent: Wed, 2 Aug 2006 10:26 AM
 Subject: Re: "meta"

  >Here's what I came up with. 
 > 
 >I'm still interested in tracing the phrase "that's so meta" -- is it a Buffy 
 >thing? 
 > 
 >(To sign up to receive my weekly "On Language" column by e-mail, go to 
 >www.nbierma.com/language.) 
 > 
 >Nathan Bierma 
 >Contributing Writer, Chicago Tribune 
 >Adjunct Professor of English, Calvin College 
 > 
 > 
 >-------------------- 
 >`Meta'-morphosis: It's everywhere 
 >-------------------- 

 Indeed. I just came across a reference to "heavy 
 meta" in a review of an indie movie, and liked 
 the phrase--but it turns out there are 46,300 raw 
 google hits on it. 

 LH 

 >By Nathan Bierma 
 >August 2, 2006 
 > 
 >Too much meta. That's what Sam McManis wrote earlier this year in the 
 >Sacramento Bee, talking about the just-released movie "Tristram Shandy: A Cock 
 >and Bull Story." The movie is "a movie about making a movie of an 18th Century 
 >comic novel that was about the conventions of novel writing," McManis 
 >explained. 
 > 
 >"How very meta it all is," he added. 
 > 
 >That's right: "meta." The prefix has now taken its place as a separate word in 
 >the English language. 
 > 
 >The Oxford English Dictionary defines "meta" as an adjective that describes 
 >"something that is self-parodying and self-referential in reflecting or 
 >representing the characteristics it alludes to or depicts." 
 > 
 >The OED's entry cites a 1993 article in the 
 >Boston Globe, which also complained 
 >about meta in pop culture. The Globe said, "When 
 >anchorwoman Connie Chung made a 
 >guest appearance on the sitcom `Murphy Brown' to advise anchorwoman Murphy not 
 >to sacrifice her journalistic integrity by making a guest appearance on a 
 >sitcom, that was just plain meta." 
 > 
 >Ironically -- or maybe it's meta -- the OED's earliest example of "meta" in 
 >print, a 1988 article in The New Republic 
 >magazine, reports that Merriam-Webster 
 >lexicographer David Justice predicted "meta" would become a word. 
 > 
 >"He predicts that, like `retro' -- whose use solely as a prefix is so, well, 
 >retro -- `meta' could become independent from other words, as in, `Wow, this 
 >sentence is so meta,'" wrote the New Republic. "If so, you heard it [here] 
 >first." 
 > 
 >Nearly two decades later, the prediction has come true. "Meta has become the 
 >new irony these days," McManis observed in the 
 >Sacramento Bee. "It's the trendy 
 >-- albeit far from new -- pop-culture device perfect for a navel-gazing, 
 >self-referential populace that wants its entertainment in a continuous loop." 
 > 
 >And McManis was writing before the release of the movies "A Prairie Home 
 >Companion" -- a movie portraying a fictional radio program, based on an actual 
 >radio program -- and "Lady in the Water," which has a character named “Story,” 
 >and features a fictional critic's commentary on some scenes as they are taking 
 >place. 
 > 
 >Maybe because we feel inundated by meta, the word often appears today in 
 >phrases such as "too meta" and "so meta." The phrase "so meta it hurts" is a 
 >category at Flickr, the picture-sharing Web 
 >site. Many pictures in that category 
 >are pictures of people taking pictures. 
 > 
 >I considered writing an article about writing this article, but I thought that 
 >would just be too meta. 
 > 
 >History of the word 
 > 
 >This usage is a new twist in the millennia-long history of "meta." The word 
 >began in ancient Greek as a preposition meaning "after." The word 
 >"metamorphosis" literally means "after 
 >transformation." "Meta" is also buried in 
 >the word "method," which comes from the Greek word "methodos," a compound of 
 >"meta-hodos" -- literally meaning "journey after." 
 > 
 >Aristotle's book "Metaphysics" discusses 
 >subjects that Aristotle thought should 
 >be taught "after physics" -- after the natural, empirical sciences, such as 
 >philosophical questions about existence. 
 > 
 >After "meta" was adopted into Latin, and then into English, the prefix came to 
 >mean "above" or "beyond," possibly because of 
 >the heady contents of Aristotle's 
 >"Metaphysics." 
 > 
 >"I think that the Greek `meta' was indeed taken and extended [in English], 
 >probably beyond recognition for a native speaker of ancient Greek," says Helma 
 >Dik, a classics professor at the University of 
 >Chicago who specializes in Greek 
 >linguistics. "But then, the ancient Greeks 
 >stretched prepositions themselves all 
 >the time, so after a quick immersion course in 
 >present-day English I'm sure they 
 >would be fine with it." 
 > 
 >In the late 20th Century, computers gave "meta" new life. Early computer 
 >keyboards had a Meta key, which controlled the function of other keys (the 
 >equivalent of the Alt key on a Windows computer 
 >today, or Command key on a Mac). 
 >Most Web pages include "meta tags" -- hidden lines of code that describe what 
 >the page is about and include key words for search engines to find. 
 > 
 >But only in the last decade or so has "meta" become a word of its own. It's 
 >usually used to describe movies about movies, 
 >journalism about journalism or Web 
 >logs about Web logs. 
 > 
 >Fictional beginnings 
 > 
 >This sense of "meta" probably began with the word "metafiction" -- 
 >self-referential fiction, which the Oxford English Dictionary traces to 1960. 
 >(The OED and the New Oxford American Dictionary 
 >are the only major dictionaries 
 >to include a separate entry for "meta" as a word.) 
 > 
 >"`Meta' is . . . creeping more and more into everyday conversations, even if 
 >it's not nearly as widespread as, say, 'irony,'" wrote Laura Miller in the New 
 >York Times book Review in late 2002. 
 > 
 >One opponent of the spread of the word "meta" posted a comment anonymously at 
 >the Web site called (what else?) MetaFilter (www.metafilter.com). 
 > 
 >"The word [should be] either `circular' or `reflexive' or `redundant' or 
 >`ironic,'" the visitor wrote. "Self-referential isn't remarkable anymore, so 
 >let's not pretend we have to invent a new word for it." 
 > 
 >Too late. 
 > 
 >---------- 
 > 
 >Got a question about asking a question? How meta. Write to Nathan Bierma at 
 >onlanguage at gmail.com. 
 > 
 >Copyright (c) 2006, Chicago Tribune 
 > 
 >http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/lifestyle/chi-0608020134aug02,1,1632630.story 
 > 
 > 
 > 
 > 
 > 
 > 
 >>>> Nathan Bierma 7/19/2006 6:35 PM >>> 
 > 
 >Arnold, 
 > 
 >My editor asked me to do something on "meta" as a new slang term (evidently 
 >meaning "ironic/self-referential," etc.) I 
 >didn't find anything on ASD-L search, 
 >and I don't think I can post a query to the listserv without being subscribed 
 >(which I no longer am, because I couldn't keep 
 >up, although I've bookmarked the 
 >weekly archives). Do you mind posting a question on my behalf--and/or your own 
 >comments--to ASD-L? 
 > 
 > 
 >Note: 
 > 
 >last listing at dictionary.com: 
 > 
 >Main Entry: meta 
 >Part of Speech: noun 
 >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' 
 > 
 >Source: Webster's New Millennium* Dictionary of English, Preview Edition (v 
 >0.9.6) 
 >Copyright © 2003-2005 Lexico Publishing Group, LLC 
 > 
 > 
 >also see the 1st paragraph 
 >http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/feature/36696/Column_Column_Puritan_Blister_17 
 > 
 >also: Google "so meta" 
 >http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&rls=GGGL%2CGGGL%3A2006-18%2CGGGL%3Aen&q=%22so+meta%22&btnG=Search 
 > 
 > 
 >Thanks! 
 > 
 >Nathan 
 > 
 >------------------------------------------------------------ 
 >The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org 

 ------------------------------------------------------------ 
 The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org 

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