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automatic - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

Ancient Greek αὐτός (autós)

Ancient Greek αὐτο- (auto-)

Proto-Indo-European *men-

English automatic

    Borrowed from New Latin automaticus, from Classical Latin automatum (“automaton”) + -icus (adjectival suffix),[1] 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.[1]

    automatic (comparative more automatic, superlative most automatic) (superlative dubious)

    1. Capable of operating without external control or intervention.
      Synonym: self-operating
      Antonyms: manual, non-automatic

      The automatic clothes washer was a great labor-saving device.

    2. Done out of habit or without conscious thought.
      Synonyms: instinctive, perfunctory, thoughtless
      Antonym: voluntary

      The reaction was automatic: flight!

      Absent-minded doodling is a form of automatic art.

      • 2021 November 10, Dan Shive, El Goonish Shive (webcomic), Comic for Wednesday, Nov 10, 2021:

        "I don't know why! Sometimes I feel like a girl! Sometimes a guy! I don't know why I feel that way! I just do! Always have! I can't remember not feeling this way! How do you explain something as natural and automatic to you as breathing?!"

    3. Necessary, inevitable, prescribed by logic, law, etc.

      Spitting at another player means an automatic red card.

    5. (of a firearm such as a machine gun) Firing continuously as long as the trigger is pressed until ammunition is exhausted.
      Coordinate terms: semi-automatic, burst mode, selective action, bolt action, lever action, (single-round per loading/chambering action) pump action

      Fully automatic weapons cannot be legally owned by private citizens in the US, except in very special circumstances, as by private security companies.

    6. (of a handgun) 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.

      The US Army adopted John Browning's M1911 pistol as its sidearm, chambered in .45 ACP (Automatic Colt Pistol).

    7. (programming, of a local variable) Automatically added to and removed from the stack during the course of function calls.

      • 2012, Robert Clair, Learning Objective-C 2.0: A Hands-on Guide:

        Automatic variables are created on the stack. They are valid only from the point where they are declared to the end of the function.

    8. (mathematics, of a group) Having one or more finite-state automata.

    capable of operating without external control

    acting without conscious thought

    describing a firearm which fires continuously

    automatic (plural automatics)

    2. A car with an automatic transmission; the transmission itself.
      Antonyms: manual, manual transmission, standard transmission, stick, stickshift, stick shift

      I never learned to drive a stick. I can only drive an automatic.

    4. A semi-automatic pistol.
      Coordinate term: revolver

      The G-men raiding the speakeasy were equipped with .45 automatics, while the local policemen were carrying revolvers and shotguns.

      • 1934, Agatha Christie, chapter 9, in Murder on the Orient Express, London: HarperCollins, published 2017, page 262:

        'The automatic under his pillow gave the lie to that statement.'

    a car with automatic transmission

    a semi-automatic pistol

    (automotive):

    1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 “automatic, adj. and n.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.

    Borrowed from French automatique. By surface analysis, automat +‎ -ic.

    automatic m or n (feminine singular automatică, masculine plural automatici, feminine/neuter plural automatice)

    1. automatic