A metaprime example is something that IS an example of itself in a self-referential way. Metaprime examples can be words themselves, or names, or names of things, or things themselves. Metaprime examples can be ideas or objects, abstract or literal, metalanguage or existential. They can be intentional or un. Sometimes they make you laugh, and usually they make you dizzy if you think about them too long!
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
First metaprime example
And here we have, from Merriam-Webster, the first metaprime example. A metaprime example is an example that is self-referential. It folds back on itself, ironically. Some metaprime examples are intentional. Some are whimsical while others are serious, and still others are happily ignorant and innocent. Therefore, in saying "a prime example" as an example of a "very good" example, "a prime example," although compromised in its overuse, nevertheless becomes its very own metaprime example incarnate. On the other hand "prime farmland," for example, is not a “metaprime” example. Here it just means "very good."
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