Science & TechnologyGreek → English
Macro
/ˈmækroʊ/noun
A single stored command that expands into a longer sequence of instructions.
The Greek roots
μακρός
makrós
long, large
Literally: “long, large”
Follow a root:μακρός5 words
The story of the word
μακρός is the twin of μικρός, long against short. Computing shortened macroinstruction to macro in the late 1950s, for one command that unpacks into many, and spreadsheet users inherited the term without ever meeting the assembler that produced it. The macron drawn over a long vowel is the same word, and so is macrobiotic, long life.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → scientific coinage → English
- First recorded
- 1950s
Same family
macronmacroeconomicsmacrobioticmacrocosm
In a sentence
He wrote a macro to rename four hundred files and saved himself an afternoon.