metastasis Look up metastasis at Dictionary.com
1570s, from Gk. metastasis "transference, removal, change," from methistanai "to remove, change," from meta- "over, across" (see meta-) + histanai "to place, cause to stand," from PIE base *sta- "to stand" (see stet). A rhetorical term in L.L. for "a sudden transition in subjects," medical use for "shift of disease from one part of the body to another" dates from 1660s in English. Related: Metastasize; metastasized; metastatic.