word-forming element meaning "long, abnormally large, on a large scale," taken into English via Middle French and Medieval Latin from Greek makros "long, large," from PIE root *mak- "long, thin" (cf. Latin macer "lean, thin;" Old Norse magr, Old English mæger "lean, thin;" Greek mekos "length").
macro- or macr-
pref.
Large: macronucleus.
Long: macrobiotic.
Inclusive: macroamylase.
macro- A prefix meaning "large," as in macromolecule, a large molecule. |
Prefix large. Opposite of micro-. In the mainstream and among other technical cultures (for example, medical people) this competes with the prefix mega-, but hackers tend to restrict the latter to quantification.
[Jargon File]