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metastasis

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
See also: metástasis

English

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Etymology

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Learned borrowing from Late Latin metastasis (“(rhetoric) rapid or sudden transition from one argument, point, or topic to another”), and from its etymons Koine Greek μετάστασις (metástasis, “(rhetoric) rapid or sudden transition from one argument, point, or topic to another”) and Ancient Greek μετάστασις (metástasis, “change; removal; (medicine) movement of disease, pain, etc., from one part of the body to another”), from μετᾰ- (metă-, prefix denoting change in condition or position) (possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *meth₂) + στᾰ́σῐς (stắsĭs, “condition, state; position”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *steh₂- (“to stand (up)”)), modelled after μεθιστάναι (methistánai, “to change; to remove”).[1] By surface analysis, meta- +‎ stasis.

In reference to the spread of cancer, a semantic loan from French métastase, whose use to refer to it was coined in 1829 by the French gynecologist Joseph Récamier (1774–1852).

The plural form metastases is a learned borrowing from Late Latin metastases.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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metastasis (countable and uncountable, plural metastases)

  1. A change in nature, form, or quality.
    • 1963, Thomas Pynchon, V.:
      Stayed in her own house, searched her body each morning and examined her conscience each night for progressive symptoms of the metastasis she feared was in her.
  2. (figurative) The spread of something harmful to another location, such as the metastasis of a cancer.
  3. (rhetoric) A sudden or rapid transition from one point, topic or argument to another, often to evade an uncomfortable subject or to redirect the discussion.
  4. (medicine, oncology) The transference of a bodily function or disease to another part of the body, specifically the development of a secondary area of disease remote from the original site, as with some cancers.

Derived terms

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Translations

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transference of a bodily function or disease to another part of the body

References

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  1. ^ “metastasis, n.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, September 2025; “metastasis, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Further reading

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Indonesian

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Etymology

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Learned borrowing from Late Latin metastasis, from Ancient Greek μετάστασις (metástasis, “removal, change”), from μεθίστημι (methístēmi, “to remove, to change”). Doublet of metastase.

Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): [mɛtaˈstasis]
  • Hyphenation: mè‧ta‧sta‧sis

Noun

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mètastasis

  1. metastasis:
    1. (chemistry) a change in nature, form, or quality
    2. (medicine, oncology) the transference of a bodily function or disease to another part of the body, specifically the development of a secondary area of disease remote from the original site, as with some cancers

Alternative forms

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Further reading

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