Etymology

metalanguage

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Today it means: Any language or vocabulary of terms used to describe or analyze a language or linguistic process. Full definition →

English language ← Middle English langage ← Old French language
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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*dn̥ǵʰwéh₂s
  7. Proto-Italic*dn̥ɣwā
  8. Latindingua
  9. Latinlingua
  10. Vulgar Latin*linguāticum
  11. Old Frenchlanguage
  12. Middle Englishlangage
  13. Englishlanguage
  14. English todaymetalanguage

From meta- + language.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.