met n. cancer that has spread beyond its point of origin. Editorial Note: The plural form, mets, is sometimes used in the singular, perhaps because of a mistaken reinterpretation of mets as a clipping of the singular metastasis. Etymological Note: Clipping of metastasis ‘a change in a location (in a body) of a disease; a disease that has made such a change’ or metastases, the plural form. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
Mark in Bismarck, North Dakota, spent years as a sailor, and wonders about the term sea painter, meaning “a rope attached to a lifeboat.” Why painter? The word may derive from Middle French pendeur meaning “a kind of rope that...
A resident of Michigan’s scenic Beaver Island shares the term, boodling, which the locals use to denote the social activity of leisurely wandering the island, often with cold fermented beverages. There have been various proposed etymologies...