Etymology

metastability

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Today it means: An unstable but potentially long-lived state of a system; for example, a supersaturated solution or an excited atom. Full definition →

English stability ← Ancient Greek μετᾰ- (metă-) ← Proto-Indo-European *meth₂?
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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. Englishstability
  7. English todaymetastability

From meta- + stability.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.