Metasyntactic Variable: Difference between revisions

{{Useful Notes}}

A '''Metasyntactic Variable''' -- also called a "Placeholder Name" -- is a word or phrase used in the place of another word or phrase in any of several contexts. By mathematical analogy, a metasyntactic variable is a word that is a variable for other words, just as in algebra letters are used as variables for numbers.

 

 

{{examples}}

== [[Advertising]] ==

* "[[Brand X]]" is used in television advertisements as a generic brand representing any other brand than the one being advertised.

 

== [[Fan Works]] ==

* The "X" in the title of ''[[The X-Files]]'' is a Metasyntactic Variable referring to the unknown and possibly paranormal aspects of the cases within those files.

* "Oceanic Airlines" -- most famously seen in ''[[Lost]]'' but [[Older Than They Think|used as early as 1965]] in ''[[Flipper]]'' -- is used as a "placeholder" fictional airline in films, TV programs, and comic books, typically when a plane is involved in a disaster or another event with which actual airlines would prefer not to be associated. [[The Other Wiki]] has [[w:Oceanic Airlines|a page listing uses of this name]].

 

== [[Theatre]] ==

''and 'St: 'st: 'st: and What's-his-name, and also You-know-who:

''The task of filling up the blanks I'd rather leave to you.}}

 

== [[Web Original]] ==

** This spawned derivatives, such as "shushpanzer" (шушпанцер), which means more or less "[https://shushpanzer-ru.livejournal.com/ armored vehicle that looks weird or improvised and obviously doesn't fit well into classifications]", "shushpancycle" ("[https://shushpanzer-ru.livejournal.com/tag/%D1%88%D1%83%D1%88%D0%BF%D0%B0%D0%BD%D1%86%D0%B8%D0%BA%D0%BB шушпанцикл]", the same for motorcycles and other small wheeled vehicles) and "shushpangewehr" ("[https://mpopenker.livejournal.com/tag/%D1%88%D1%83%D1%88%D0%BF%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%B3%D0%B5%D0%B2%D0%B5%D1%80%D0%BE%D0%BB%D0%BE%D0%B3%D0%B8%D1%8F шушпангевер]", the same for firearms, especially long arms).

* All The Tropes (and [[TV Tropes]] before us) has a history of using the word "trope" as a Metasyntactic Variable in trope names, such as [[The Trope Kid]], [[Disney Owns This Trope]] and [[The Von Trope Family]]. TVT began discouraging this practice long before the fork leading to ATT took place, and many such names were later replaced, but we still have a dozen or so lurking about, and have even added a couple of our own, such as [[Tropacabana]].

 

==[[Real Life]]==