also macro-instruction, in computing, "a group of programming instructions compressed into a simpler form and appearing as a single instruction," 1959, from macro- + instruction.
Entries linking to macroinstruction
macro-
word-forming element meaning "long, abnormally large, on a large scale," taken into English via French and Medieval Latin from Greek makros "long, large," from PIE root *mak- "long, thin."
instruction n.
c. 1400, instruccioun, "action or process of teaching," from Old French instruccion (14c., Modern French instruction), from Latin instructionem (nominative instructio) "an array, arrangement," in Late Latin "teaching," from past participle stem of instruere "arrange, prepare, set in order; inform, teach," from in- "on" (from PIE root *en "in") + struere "to pile, build" (from PIE *streu-, extended form of root *stere- "to spread").
Teaching is the general word for the imparting of knowledge .... Instruction has the imparting of knowledge for its object, but emphasizes, more than teaching, the employment of orderly arrangement in the things taught. [Century Dictionary]
Meaning "an authoritative direction telling someone what to do; a document giving such directions," is early 15c. Related: Instructions.
macro n.
1959 in computing sense, shortened from macroinstruction.