Fwd: oed on "meta"

[Jonathan Lighter]

A few years back Jesse and I discussed just how to define this elusive term. (Try it sometime from scratch ! ).

  Some of the exx. collected by OED readers were so seemingly impenetrable that I suggested the entry include the phrase "Also fig."

  JL


"Arnold M. Zwicky" <zwicky at CSLI.STANFORD.EDU> wrote:
  ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: "Arnold M. Zwicky"
Subject: Fwd: oed on "meta"
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Begin forwarded message:

> From: "Nathan Bierma"
> Date: July 19, 2006 3:44:08 PM PDT
> To:
> Subject: oed
>
> last thing, sorry! I foolishly assumed this was too new to be in
> the oed, but
>
> 2. orig. and chiefly U.S. Freq. in predicative use. Designating
> or characterized by a consciously sophisticated, self-referential,
> and often self-parodying style, whereby something (as a situation,
> person, etc.) reflects or represents the very characteristics it
> alludes to or depicts.
>
> 1988 New Republic 5 Sept. 17/2 He predicts that, like
> ‘retro’..‘meta’ could become independent from other words, as in
> ‘Wow, this sentence is so meta’. If so, you heard it from me first.
> 1993 Boston Globe 8 Aug. (Electronic ed.), When anchorwoman Connie
> Chung made a guest appearance on 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.
> 1994 D. RUSHKOFF Cyberia III. x. 127 Everything relates to house in
> a self-conscious or ‘meta’ way. 1999 Vanity Fair Aug. 58/1 An
> enterprise such as Brill's Content is inherently ‘meta’, since it
> doesn't review movies, for example, it reviews the reviewers who
> review movies.

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



---------------------------------
Groups are talking. We´re listening. Check out the handy changes to Yahoo! Groups.

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