Construction
- meta- means providing information about, or transcending,
- syntax denotes the grammatical arrangement of words or the grammatical rules of a programming language, and
- a variable is something that can assume a value, or something likely to vary.
So metasyntactic variable denotes a word that "transcends grammar and can assume a value" or one that is "more comprehensive than suggested by its grammatical arrangement and is likely to vary". It may also denote a word that provides information about the grammatical arrangement of words by being able to assume a value that is expected to vary.
Read more about this topic: Metasyntactic Variable (computing)
Famous quotes containing the word construction:
“There’s no art
To find the mind’s construction in the face:
He was a gentleman on whom I built
An absolute trust.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“No real “vital” character in fiction is altogether a conscious construction of the author. On the contrary, it may be a sort of parasitic growth upon the author’s personality, developing by internal necessity as much as by external addition.”
—T.S. (Thomas Stearns)
“Striving toward a goal puts a more pleasing construction on our advance toward death.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)