automatic
Meanings
- Capable of operating without external control or intervention.
- Done out of habit or without conscious thought.
- Necessary, inevitable, prescribed by logic, law, etc.
- Firing continuously as long as the trigger is pressed until ammunition is exhausted.
- An autoloader; a semi-automatic or self-loading pistol, as opposed to a revolver or other manually actuated handgun, which fires one shot per pull of the trigger; distinct from machine guns.
- Automatically added to and removed from the stack during the course of function calls.
- Having one or more finite-state automata.
- A car with an automatic transmission; the transmission itself.
- A semi-automatic pistol.
Pronunciation
Word forms
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₂ewder.? Proto-Indo-European *sóder.? Proto-Indo-European *h₂ewder. Ancient Greek αὖ (aû) Ancient Greek τόν (tón)? Ancient Greek αὐτός (autós) Ancient Greek αὐτο- (auto-) Proto-Indo-European *men- Proto-Indo-European *-tós Proto-Indo-European *mn̥tós Proto-Hellenic *mətós Ancient Greek αὐτόμᾰτος (autómătos) Ancient Greek αὐτόμᾰτον (autómăton)der. Classical Latin automatum New Latin automaticusbor. English automatic Borrowed from New Latin automaticus, from Classical Latin automatum (“automaton”) + -icus (adjectival suffix), from Ancient Greek αὐτόματον (autómaton), neuter of αὐτόματος (autómatos, “self-moving, moving of oneself, self-acting, spontaneous”), from αὐτός (autós, “self, myself”) + μέμαα (mémaa, “to wish eagerly, strive, yearn, desire”). The original pronunciation, apparently with stress on the second syllable, was after the ultimate Greek base.