metastasis

Etymology

It is partly borrowed from Late Latin metastasis (“transition”), a rhetorical term in Latin from the 6th century, and partly borrowed from Ancient Greek μετάστασις (metástasis, “removal, change”).^[2][3][4][5] The Greek noun is formed from μετα- (meta-) and στάσις (stásis), after μεθίστημι (methístēmi, “to remove, change”),^[2][6] itself from the same prefix and ἵστημι (hístēmi, “to cause to stand, place”),^[3][6][7][5] from Proto-Indo-European *sta- (“to stand, make or be firm”).^[3] In Greek the word was used of the shifting of disease already in the Hippocratic Corpus, and as a rhetorical term in Hellenistic Greek;^[2] Quintilian used the Greek word as a rhetorical term in a Latin context.^[2] Barnhart and Merriam-Webster take the English word through New Latin.^[4][5] The OED compares Middle French métastase, recorded in the medical sense from 1586.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

In rhetoric, a rapid transition from one point or type of figure to another: 1577, in Peacham's Garden of Eloquence.^[2][4] The full Barnhart dates it to 1586,^[8] Etymonline to the 1570s,^[3] and Dictionary.com to 1580–90.^[9]

Semantic evolution

The rhetorical sense soon became rare.^[10] In 1663 Boyle used the word in medicine for the movement of pain or disease from one part of the body to another,^[2][8][3] and Merriam-Webster dates the word itself from that year.^[5][11] Johnson (1755) defined it as "translation or removal", quoting a passage on a disease caused by the shifting of humours from the joints to the lungs.^[12] The specific sense, the spread of cancer cells to form secondary growths, became the main one.^[2][8][7] In the 19th century the word was also used for transformation in general (from 1818), for the chemical change of compounds in the body, roughly metabolism (1861–86), and in geology for a change in physical character (1886–89).^[2] The verb metastasize is recorded from 1907.^[8]

Timeline

• 1577 – in rhetoric, a rapid transition from one point to another.^[2][4]
• 1663 – in medicine, the movement of disease from one part of the body to another.^[2][8][5][3]
• 1818 – transformation in general.^[2]
• 1861 – in biochemistry, the transformation of compounds, as in metabolism (obsolete by 1886).^[2]
• 1886 – in geology, a change in physical character (obsolete by 1889).^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. (medicine) The spread of a disease, especially of cancer cells, from its original site to another part of the body, usually through the blood or the lymph: Early treatment lowers the risk of metastasis.^{[13][7][5][2]}
2. (medicine) A secondary tumour formed in this way.^[7][11]
3. A change of position, state or form.^[5][11][2]
4. (rhetoric) A quick transition from one subject or point to another.^[13][2][10]
5. (obsolete, 1861–86) Metabolism.^[2][13]

Word family

• metastatic
• metastatically
• metastasize

Related words

• stasis
• static
• ecstasy
• state
• stand

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
5. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
9. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
10. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
12. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
13. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins