meta

Forms

meta f (plural metas)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin meta (“cone; turning post; goal, limit”), a learned word.^[2][1][3] Autoridades already calls it a purely Latin word.^[4] The same Latin word survives as the inherited meda “stack of sheaves, haystack”, its popular doublet, which is shared by Portuguese, Galician and Asturian-Leonese.^[1][5] The Romance outcomes include Portuguese meda and Italian meta “haystack”.^[6][7]

De Vaan derives the Latin noun, with hesitation, from Proto-Indo-European *meh₁- (“to measure”), as a post used to mark distances; he finds the older link with *meith₂- (“to exchange”) semantically unconvincing.^[8] Wiktionary also traces it to this root, which gave mētior (“to measure”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

DICCA-XV dates its first record of the word to 1458–1467; the CORDE's first hit is of 1499 and Corominas's of 1587.^[3] Nebrija's Latin dictionary of 1492 glosses Latin meta as “the end of the course”.^[3] An early record from the Americas, of 1588 in New Granada, uses the plural for the two limits of the sun's course.^[9]

Semantic evolution

Autoridades (1734) defines meta simply as a limit, with an example from Sabuco.^[4] The Academy's 1817 edition made it a synonym of blanco “target”, and the 1869 edition defined it as “end, limit”, also figuratively.^[10][11] In 1884 the Academy first gave the Roman sense, the pointed stone at the end of the spina of the circus where the chariots turned, together with the end of a race and the figurative “aim”.^[12] The present-day dictionaries add the sports senses, the goal in football and the goalkeeper.^[2][13] Bénaben notes that the goalkeeper is called el meta by metonymy, short for guardameta.^[14]

Timeline

• 1458–1467 – the first record in DICCA-XV.^[3]
• 1492 – Nebrija's Latin dictionary glosses Latin meta.^[3]
• 1499 – the first hit in the CORDE.^[3]
• 1587 – the first record that Corominas cites.^[3]
• 1588 – an early record from the Americas, in New Granada.^[9]
• 1734 – Autoridades defines it as “limit” and calls it a Latin word.^[4]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives the Roman circus sense and the etymology.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. The finishing line or end point of a race.^[2][15]
2. A goal or aim: the end towards which someone's actions or wishes are directed: Su meta es terminar la carrera este año.^[2][1]
3. (history) In the Roman circus, each of the conical pillars at the two ends of the spina.^[2][16]
4. (sports) In football and other games, the goal: marcó en su propia meta.^[2][15]
5. (sports; masculine or feminine) A goalkeeper.^[2][14]

Word family

• guardameta

Related words

• meda
• Latin meta

Usage notes

In the sense “goalkeeper” the noun takes the article of the person's sex: el meta, la meta.^[2] In slang meta is also a clipping of metanfetamina “methamphetamine”.^[1] Cantabrian has a separate meta “wild strawberry”, one of the regional names of the mayueta, and Salamanca and Asturias use meta for “half”.^{[16][17][18][19]}

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. meta
3. ^ a b c d e f g Lleal, Coloma (dir.), DICCA-XV: Diccionario del castellano del siglo XV en la Corona de Aragón, Barcelona: Universitat de Barcelona, Grup d'Estudis d'Història de la Llengua (GHCL), https://ghcl.ub.edu/diccaxv, p. s.v. meta
4. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 557
5. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 4312
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 5540
7. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon
8. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ a b Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies
10. ^ Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 571
11. ^ Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 506
12. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 699
13. ^ Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. meta
14. ^ a b Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses
15. ^ a b Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial
16. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos
17. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 4045
18. ^ Lamano y Beneite, José de (1915), El dialecto vulgar salmantino, Salamanca: Tipografía Popular
19. ^ Rato y Hevia, Apolinar de (1891), Vocabulario de las palabras y frases bables que se hablaron antiguamente y de las que hoy se hablan en el Principado de Asturias, Madrid: Manuel G. Hernández