Metabola

Metabola Me*tab"o*la, Metabole Me*tab"o*le, n. [NL., from Gr. ? change; ? beyond + ? to throw.] (Med.) A change or mutation; a change of disease, symptoms, or treatment. [1913 Webster]

Metabola, from Greek μεταβολή, from `meta' (μέτα) for `after' and `boli' (βολή) for cast and throw. It refers to a period of time that certain physical phenomena occur, i.e. changes in an environment are observed, as a result of `casting' certain means to this environment, i.e. by applying a certain means towards this change.

Any metabola is characterised by a start, an end and a duration that the physical changes in the environment, i.e. phenomena, occur after (meta - μετά) the causal means are applied/cast (boli - βολή).