Etymology

metacharacter

M3E1T1A1C3H4A1R1A1C3T1E1R1

Today it means: A character used to signify something other than its literal form, such as the asterisk when used as a wildcard. Full definition →

English character ← Middle English caracter ← Old French caractere
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The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European*me
  2. Proto-Indo-European*meth₂?
  3. Ancient Greekμετᾰ́ (metắ)
  4. Ancient Greekμετᾰ- (metă-)
  5. Englishmeta-
  6. Ancient Greekχαράσσω (kharássō)
  7. Ancient Greekχαρακτήρ (kharaktḗr)
  8. Latincharactēr
  9. Old Frenchcaractere
  10. Middle Englishcaracter
  11. Englishcharacter
  12. English todaymetacharacter

From meta- + character.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.