Van Meter, Van Metre and Van Mater are American surnames derived from the Dutch surname Van Meteren. Most are descendants of Jan Joosten van Meteren who in 1662 settled in Wiltwijck, New Netherlands, now Kingston, New York. The surname is a toponym, meaning "from Meteren" in Gelderland, the Netherlands.
Famous quotes containing the words van and/or meter:
“Linguistically, and hence conceptually, the things in sharpest focus are the things that are public enough to be talked of publicly, common and conspicuous enough to be talked of often, and near enough to sense to be quickly identified and learned by name; it is to these that words apply first and foremost.”
—Willard Van Orman Quine (b. 1908)
“Much poetry seems to be aware of its situation in time and of its relation to the metronome, the clock, and the calendar. ... The season or month is there to be felt; the day is there to be seized. Poems beginning “When” are much more numerous than those beginning “Where” of “If.” As the meter is running, the recurrent message tapped out by the passing of measured time is mortality.”
—William Harmon (b. 1938)