Look up meta- in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

For information on the wiki-based web site for the coordination of all the Wikimedia Foundation projects, see Wikipedia:Meta.

Meta (from Greek: μετά = "after", "beyond", "with"), is a prefix used in English in order to indicate a concept which is an abstraction from another concept, used to complete or add to the latter. The Greek meta is equivalent to the Latin post. Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... Wiktionary (a portmanteau of wiki and dictionary) is a multilingual, Web-based project to create a free content dictionary, available in over 150 languages. ... Look up meta, meta- in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... abstraction in general. ... Latin was the language originally spoken in the region around Rome called Latium. ...

In epistemology, the prefix meta- is used to mean about (its own category). For example, metadata are data about data (who has produced them, when, what format the data are in and so on). Similarly, metamemory in psychology means an individual's knowledge about whether or not they would remember something if they concentrated on recalling it. Furthermore, metaemotion in psychology means an individual's emotion about his/her own basic emotion, or somebody else's basic emotion.^{[citation needed]}. Theory of knowledge redirects here: for other uses, see theory of knowledge (disambiguation) According to Plato, knowledge is a subset of that which is both true and believed Epistemology or theory of knowledge is the branch of philosophy that studies the nature, methods, limitations, and validity of knowledge and belief. ... Metadata is data about data. ... Metamemory refers to memory about our own memory system and its functioning. ... This article needs additional references or sources for verification. ... Meta-emotion refers to second-order feelings or emotions about first-order emotions. ...

Another, slightly different interpretation of this term is "about" but not "on" (exactly its own category). For example, a grammar is considered as a metalanguage, or a sort of language for describing another language (and not itself). A meta-answer is not a real answer but a reply, such as: "this is not a good question", "I suggest you ask your professor". Here, we have such concepts as meta-reasoning and meta-knowledge. In logic and linguistics, a metalanguage is a language used to make statements about other languages (object languages). ... Reasoning is the mental (cognitive) process of looking for reasons to support beliefs, conclusions, actions or feelings. ... Meta-knowledge or metaknowledge is possible to interpret as knowledge about knowledge. ...

Any subject can be said to have a meta-theory, which is the theoretical consideration of such its meta-properties as: foundations, methods, form and utility. // A metatheory or meta-theory is a theory which concerns itself with another theory or theories. ... Look up Foundation on Wiktionary, the free dictionary Foundation may refer to: A type of makeup. ... Look up method in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... It has been suggested that this article be split into multiple articles accessible from a disambiguation page. ... In economics, utility is a measure of the relative happiness or satisfaction (gratification) gained. ...

Etymology

The prefix is derived by back-formation from the Greek preposition and prefix meta- (μετά) which meant either "after", "beside" or "with". Meta- & Meso- are thought to have come into Greek together from a mutual cognate, which would further imply 'meta' to contain or be of the meaning "parallel". ^[1] In etymology, the process of back-formation is the creation of a neologism by reinterpreting an earlier word as a compound and removing the spuriously supposed affixes. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with adposition. ... In linguistics, a prefix is a type of affix that precedes the morphemes to which it can attach. ... Look up meso-, meso in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

Quine and Hofstadter

The OED cites uses of the meta- prefix as "beyond, about" (such as meta-economics and meta-philosophy) going back to 1917. However, these formations are directly parallel to the original "metaphysics" and "metaphysical", that is, as a prefix to general nouns (fields of study) or adjectives. Going by the OED citations, it began to be used with specific nouns in connection with mathematical logic sometime before 1929. (In 1920 David Hilbert proposed a research project in what was called "metamathematics.") OED stands for Oxford English Dictionary Office of Enrollment & Discipline This page concerning a three-letter acronym or abbreviation is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... | name = David Hilbert | image = Hilbert1912. ... In general, metamathematics or meta-mathematics is reflection about mathematics seen as an entity/object in human consciousness and culture. ...

A notable early citation is Quine's 1937 use of the word "metatheorem", where meta- clearly has the modern meaning of "an X about X". (Note that earlier uses of "meta-economics" and even "metaphysics" do not have this doubled conceptual structure, they are about or beyond X but they do not themselves constitute an X). Note also that this modern meaning allows for self-reference, since if something is about the category to which it belongs, it can be about itself; it is therefore no coincidence that we find Quine, a mathemetician interested in self-reference, using it. For people named Quine, see Quine (surname). ... A self-reference occurs when an object refers to itself. ...

An encyclopedia article which discusses an encyclopedia article (itself).

Douglas Hofstadter, in his 1979 book Gödel, Escher, Bach (and in the sequel, Metamagical Themas), popularized this meaning of the term. This book, which deals extensively with self-reference and touches on Quine and his work, was influential in many computer-related subcultures, and is probably largely responsible for the popularity of the prefix, for its use as a solo term, and for the many recent coinages which use it. Hofstadter uses the meta as a stand-alone word, both as an adjective and as a directional preposition ("going meta", a term he coins for the old rhetorical trick of taking a debate or analysis to another level of abstraction, as in "This debate isn't going anywhere."). This book is also probably responsible for the direct association of "meta" with self-reference, as opposed to just abstraction. The sentence "This sentence contains thirty six letters." along with the sentence it is embedded in are examples of sentences that reference themselves in this way. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Douglas Richard Hofstadter (born February 15, 1945 in New York, New York) is an American academic. ... Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid: A metaphorical fugue on minds and machines in the spirit of Lewis Carroll (commonly GEB) is a Pulitzer Prize (1980)-winning book by Douglas Hofstadter, published in 1979 by Basic Books. ... Metamagical Themas is an eclectic collection of articles written for Scientific American during the early 1980s by Douglas Hofstadter, and published together as a book in 1985 by Basic Books (ISBN 0465045669) . The subject matter of the articles is loosely woven about themes in philosophy, creativity, artificial intelligence and important...

Words using the term 'meta' or 'meta-'

Common uses of the English prefix include:

• Meta-analysis
• Metadata
• <meta> (or <META>), an HTML tag
• Metacharacter
• Metacognition
• Meta-discussion
• Meta-emotion
• Meta-ethics
• Metafiction
• Metafilm
• Metagaming
• Metahuman
• Meta-joke
• Metaknowledge
• Metalanguage
• Metalogic
• Metamathematics
• Metamechanics
• Metamerism
• Metamodeling
• Metanarrative
• Metaphilosophy
• Metapolitics
• Metaprogramming
• Metatheatre
• Metaverse

Other uses more closely follow the Greek meaning. For example: A meta-analysis is a statistical practice of combining the results of a number of studies. ... Metadata is data about data. ... Meta tags are used to provide structured data about data. ... This article is about HTML elements. ... A metacharacter is a character that has a general meaning instead of a literal meaning in a regular expression. ... Metacognition refers to thinking about cognition (memory, perception, calculation, association, etc. ... What is meta-discussion? Meta-discussion is second-order discussion: discussion about the discussion &#8211; for instance, about its style, its participants, the forum in which it takes place, and so on &#8211; instead of about on-topic matters. ... // Meta-emotion refers in accordance with the general definition of the prefix meta- to second-order feelings or emotions about first-order emotions. ... In philosophy, meta-ethics or analytic ethics [1] is the branch of ethics that seeks to understand the nature of ethical properties, and ethical statements, attitudes, and judgments. ... Look up metafiction in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Similar to metafiction in technique, the style of the film making calls attention to the fact that the film itself is a metaphor about the actual production of the film and that the audience is tied in with the drama unfolding on the screen. ... The term metagame arose in mathematics as a descriptor for set interaction that governs subset interaction in certain cases. ... Metahuman is a term to describe superhumans in the DC Universe. ... Meta-joke refers to three somewhat different, but related categories: self-referential jokes, jokes about jokes (see meta-) also known as metahumor, and joke templates. // This kind of meta-joke is a joke in which the joke itself, or, rather, a certain category of joke, is part of the joke. ... Metaknowledge or meta-knowledge is knowledge about knowledge. ... In logic and linguistics, a metalanguage is a language used to make statements about other languages (object languages). ... The metalogic of a system of logic is the formal proof supporting its soundness. ... In general, metamathematics or meta-mathematics is reflection about mathematics seen as an entity/object in human consciousness and culture. ... Metamechanics has a specific meaning in relation to art history, as a description of the kinetic sculpture machines of Jean Tinguely. ... Metamerism has at least three meanings: Properties of repeated segments in annelids, a concern of zoology; The chemical property of having the same proportion of atomic components in different arrangements (obsolete, replaced with isomer); Metamerism (color), an exploration of the factors that can contribute to a color appearing different under... In computer science and related disciplines, metamodeling is the construction of a collection of concepts (things, terms, etc. ... In critical theory, and particularly postmodernism, a metanarrative (sometimes master- or grand narrative) is a global or totalizing cultural narrative schema which orders and explains knowledge and experience.[1] The prefix meta means beyond and is here used to mean about, and a narrative is a story. ... Metaphilosophy (from Greek meta + philosophy) is the study of the subject and matter, methods and aims of philosophy. ... Metapolitics is the study of theories regarding the structure of which political ideologies are built upon. ... Metaprogramming is the writing of computer programs that write or manipulate other programs (or themselves) as their data or that do part of the work during compile time that is otherwise done at run time. ... The word ‘metatheatre’ was coined by Lionel Abel in 1963 and, although the term has entered into common critical usage, there is still much uncertainty over its proper definition, and what dramatic techniques might be included under its banner. ... The term metaverse comes from Neal Stephenson’s 1992 novel Snow Crash, and is now widely used to describe the vision behind current work on fully immersive 3D virtual spaces. ...

• Metaphysics
• Metanomic
• Metathesis
• Meta- (chemistry)

Plato (Left) and Aristotle (right), by Raphael (Stanza della Segnatura, Rome) Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy concerned with explaining the ultimate nature of reality, being, and the world. ... Metathesis is a sound change that alters the order of phonemes in a word. ... In organic chemistry, meta (along with ortho and para) is used to distinguish the three types of isomer of disubstituted benzenes: it indicates that the substituents are at locants 1 and 3. ...

References