[metadataLibrarians] The Word Detective, March 13 - Meta

[Susan K. Monroe]

Thought people would find this interesting.

Sue Monroe
Family Library

----- Forwarded message from Evan Morris <words1 at word-detective.com> -----
    Date: Tue, 07 Mar 2006 21:52:28 -0500
    From: Evan Morris <words1 at word-detective.com>
Reply-To: Evan Morris <words1 at word-detective.com>
 Subject: [The Word Detective] The Word Detective, March 13 through 24, 2006

The Word Detective
By Evan Morris
Copyright © 2006 by Evan Morris
For Release:  Monday, March 13, 2006


Dear Word Detective:  Do you know the origin of the saying "Up in 
Annie's room behind the clock"?  When the prefix "meta," meaning 
"beyond" comes in front of a word like information ("meta-information") 
or language ("meta-language"), does it have the connotation of "power" 
(power language, power information)? -- Judi Harris.  

I sure hope that's two separate questions.  "Up in Annie's room behind 
the clock" is enough of a puzzle without worrying about a "meta" version. 

"Up in Annie's room behind the clock" is a humorous catch phrase used 
(almost exclusively in the UK) in reply to a question about the location 
of a missing item or person ("So, where do you suppose my car keys are?" 
"Probably up in Annie's room behind the clock."). 

According to Eric Partridge's Dictionary of Catch Phrases, the original 
form, dating to the British Army just before World War I, was simply "Up 
in Annie's room," a joking reply to an inquiry (often from a sergeant or 
other superior) as to the whereabouts of another soldier.  As this 
exchange usually took place either in the barracks or in the field, the 
humor came from the fact that there was no possible "Annie," let alone a 
room upstairs in which to dally with her. 

The phrase "Up in Annie's room" percolated into civilian use after the 
war but apparently lost its absurdist bite in an environment where the 
absence of an "Annie" was no longer a given.  The subsequent addition of 
"behind the clock" (or the variant "behind the wallpaper") transformed 
the phrase from one meaning "an impossible place" to one suggesting an 
extremely obscure and improbable place.

As for "meta," it has several meanings as a prefix in English, including 
"above," "behind," "beyond" and "more advanced," but in the cases you 
mention the basic sense is "description or analysis of the category 
itself at a higher level" (as, in the case of "meta-information," 
information about the information itself).  Lately the prefix "meta" has 
become an adjective in itself, used to describe an analysis which 
bypasses the actual content of a topic in favor of examining its broader 
socio-political implications, often for no good reason ("So I went to 
King Kong with Larry and afterwards he went all meta and started ranting 
about the dinosaurs representing the anti-colonialist struggle in the 
Third World, and I'm like, hello, it's a movie about a giant gorilla.").  

----------
Do you ever wonder where a word or phrase came from?  Send your queries 
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The Word Detective
By Evan Morris
Copyright © 2006 by Evan Morris
For Release:  Wednesday, March 15, 2006

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