Dictionary

megacharacter en · NOUN

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *méǵh₂s Proto-Hellenic *mégas Ancient Greek μέγᾰς (mégăs)der. English mega- Ancient Greek χαράσσω (kharássō) Proto-Indo-European *-tḗr Proto-Hellenic *-tḗr Ancient Greek -τήρ (-tḗr) Ancient Greek χαρακτήρ (kharaktḗr)der. Latin charactērder. Old French caracterebor. Middle English caracter English character English megacharacter From mega- + character.

Meanings

1. (rare) One million characters of text.
   • The eighth column presents the capacity of one entire storage unit, in megabytes (or megacharacters); sometimes the unit is the same as the module, as in the case of the IBM 2311 disk pack, and sometimes it is an aggregate of modules, as in the case of the IBM 2314, or the RCA mass storage. 1969, David Lefkowitz, File Structures for Online Systems, New York, N.Y.; Washington, D.C., page 203:
   • 400 megabytes, probably has 200 to 300 megacharacters. At .003 megacharacters per page ( 3000 characters per page) this is 66,000 to 100,000 pages to print out before the end of the year, or 133 to 200 reams of paper to print by the end of the year. 1999 January 22, Material Fellow, “The Y2k Survival CD!”, in oc.forsale (Usenet):
   • There's raw speed and then there's raw speed. Do you want to display, say, a megacharacter/second? 2005 June 8, Andrew Dalke, “Fast text display?”, in comp.lang.python (Usenet):
2. (qualifier:roleplaying games) A character who has reached a high level and become extremely powerful.
   • Happily joining, I soon found myself flying off and breaking all the level restrictions I had to to^([sic]) labor through for weeks, due to the strengths of a megacharacter who is leading this power leveling expedition. 1999 February 5, Fandral, “Level 50 guy question...”, in alt.games.everquest (Usenet):
   • At the instigation of Edward and Loel Schoonover, I finally managed to produce another major T&T solitaire in 1982. It is called Agent Of Death, and it has a couple of important firsts in it. It is the first real adventure designed especially for megacharacters (if you're not a megacharacter for part 3 of the adventure, forget it!). 1984 March/April, Ken St. Andre, “From Khazan to Melnibone... and Back Again”, in Different Worlds, number 33, page 26:
   • M&M, although my overall favorite RPG series, has a tendency to get absolutely ludicrous by the end (piloting megacharacters in an otherwise sword and sorcery game into spaceships and underground Lord Xeen factories). 1998 April 20, George, “Fallout is not that good.”, in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.rpg (Usenet):

Forms