Etymology

metadata

M3E1T1A1D2A1T1A1

Today it means: Data that describes other data, serving as an informative label. Full definition →

English data ← Latin datum ← Proto-Italic *didō
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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. Proto-Indo-European*deh₃-redup.
  7. Proto-Indo-European*dédeh₃ti
  8. Proto-Italic*didō
  9. Latindō
  10. Latindatus
  11. Latindatum
  12. Englishdata
  13. English todaymetadata

From meta- + data.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.