metamessagen.
/ˈmɛtəˌmɛsɪdʒ/, U.S. /ˈmɛdəˌmɛsɪdʒ/ Originally: the context of a message, or a statement about that context. Now usually: an underlying meaning, a subtext; a hidden message.Cf. also metacommunication n., metalinguistics n. 1.
ΘΚΠ
society > communication > [noun] > indirect
body language1885
metacommunication1951
meta-talk1953
metamessage1960
society > communication > information > publishing or spreading abroad > advertising > [noun]
advertisement1600
advertising1717
puffery1731
sandwiching1877
promotion1914
eye1924
promo1955
hidden persuasion1957
metamessage1960
shout line1990
1960 G. Bateson in Amer. Med. Assoc. Arch. Gen. Psychiatry 2 479/1 There is a gulf between context and message (or between meta-message and message).
1971 Ann. Rev. Ecol. & Systematics 2 28 The medium is not the message. It is a metamessage.
1977 Addictive Dis. 3 279 Advertisers also make capital of the meta-message—the innuendo, the unstated point that seems innocuous enough on the surface.
1991 New Scientist 24 Aug. 37/2 His tone was patronising. Its ‘metamessage’, as Tannen puts it, was that everything baffling her was obvious to him.
1995 Jrnl. Advertising (Electronic ed.) 24 Each aspect of this metamessage is anathema to the ecologist who considers all dimensions of the process.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2001; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
<
n.1960