Editing Meta (prefix)

{{Short description|Productive prefix in English derived from Greek}}
'''''Meta''''' (from the {{lang|el|μετά}}, ''[[wikt:meta-|meta]]'', meaning 'after' or 'beyond') is an adjective meaning 'more comprehensive' or 'transcending'.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/meta|title=Definition of META|website=www.merriam-webster.com|language=en|access-date=2019-12-01}}</ref>

In modern nomenclature, the prefix 
meta can also serve as a prefix meaning self-referential, as a field of study or endeavor ([[metatheory]]: theory about a theory; [[metamathematics]]: mathematical theories about mathematics; meta-axiomatics or meta-axiomaticity: axioms about axiomatic systems; metahumor: joking about the ways humor is expressed; etc.).<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/meta-adjective-self-referential |title=That's So Meta: Things are about to get meta |access-date=2022-11-02 }}</ref>

==Original Greek meaning==
{{Unreferenced section|date=August 2022}}
In [[Ancient Greek|Greek]], the prefix ''meta-'' is generally less esoteric than in [[English language|English]]; Greek ''meta-'' is equivalent to the [[Latin language|Latin]] words ''post-'' or ''ad-''. The use of the prefix in this sense occurs occasionally in [[English language|scientific English]] terms derived from [[Greek (language)|Greek]]. For example, the term ''[[Metatheria]]'' (the name for the [[clade]] of [[marsupial]] [[mammals]]) uses the prefix ''meta-'' in the sense that the ''[[Metatheria]]'' occur on the tree of life adjacent to the ''[[Theria]]'' (the [[placental mammals]]).

==Epistemology==
{{anchor|About}}
In [[epistemology]], and often in common use, the prefix ''meta-'' is used to mean 'about (its own category)'. For example, [[metadata]] is data about data (who has produced them, when, what format the data are in and so on). In a database, metadata is also data about data stored in a data dictionary, describing information (data) about database tables such as the table name, table owner, details about columns, etc. – essentially describing the table. In psychology, [[metamemory]] refers to an individual's [[knowledge]] about whether or not they would remember something if they concentrated on recalling it. The modern sense of "an X about X" has given rise to concepts like "[[meta-cognition]]" (cognition about cognition), "[[meta-emotion]]" (emotion about emotion), "[[meta-discussion]]" (discussion about discussion), "[[meta-joke]]" (joke about jokes), and "[[metaprogramming]]" (writing programs about writing programs). In a [[rule-based system]], a [[wiktionary:metarule|metarule]] is a rule governing the application of other rules.<ref>{{Cite conference |last1=Schild |first1=Uri J. |last2=Herzog |first2=Shai |date=1993 |title=The Use of Meta-rules in Rule Based Legal Computer Systems |series=ICAIL '93 |location=Amsterdam, the Netherlands |publisher=[[Association for Computing Machinery|ACM]] |pages=100–109 |doi=10.1145/158976.158989 |isbn=0897916069 |work=Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Law}}</ref>

"[[Metagaming]]", accordingly, refers to games about games. However, it has a different meaning depending on the context. In [[Role-playing game|role-playing games]], this means that someone with a higher level of knowledge is playing; that is, that the player incorporates factors that are outside the actual framework of the game – the player has knowledge that was not acquired through experiencing the game, but through external sources. This type of metagaming is often frowned upon in many role-playing game communities because it impairs game balance and equality of opportunity.<ref>{{Cite web|title=METAGAME {{!}} What Does METAGAME Mean in Gaming?|url=https://www.cyberdefinitions.com/definitions/METAGAME.html|access-date=2021-11-19|website=www.cyberdefinitions.com}}</ref> Metagaming can also refer to a game that is used to create or change the rules while playing a game. One can play this type of metagame and choose which rules apply during the game itself, potentially changing the level of difficulty. Such metagames include campaign role-playing games like ''[[Halo 3]]''.<ref>Metagames, paragames and orthogames: a new vocabulary. M. Carter, M. Gibbs, and M. Harrop. FDG, pages 11–17. ACM, (2012 ).

[https://people.eng.unimelb.edu.au/mharrop/pdf/metagames.pdf https://people.eng.unimelb.edu.au/mharrop/pdf/metagames.pdf.]</ref> Complex card or board games, e.g. [[poker]] or [[chess]], are also often referred to as metagames. According to Nigel Howard, this type of metagame is defined as a decision-making process that is derived from the analysis of possible outcomes in relation to external variables that change a problem.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Howard|first=Nigel|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/277215|title=Paradoxes of rationality: theory of metagames and political behavior.|date=1971|publisher=MIT Press|isbn=0-262-08046-X|location=Cambridge|oclc=277215}}</ref>

==Abstraction and self-reference==
{{Unreferenced section|date=August 2022}}
[[File:Humoristic grafitti (cropped).jpg|alt=Graffiti on a wall reading "Things I hate: 1. Vandalism 2. Irony 3. Lists"|thumb|An example of [[self-referential humor]] on a wall in Paris, which requires an understanding of both the text and the transcending context through which the text is read]]
Any subject can be said to have a ''[[metatheory]]'', a theoretical consideration of its properties – such as its [[wikt:foundation|foundation]]s, [[wikt:method|method]]s, [[wikt:form|form]], and [[utility]] – on a higher level of abstraction. In linguistics, grammar is considered to be a [[metalanguage]]: a language operating on a higher level to describe properties of the plain language, and not itself.

==Etymology==
The prefix comes from the [[Ancient Greek|Greek]] [[preposition]] and [[Prefix (linguistics)|prefix]] ''meta-'' (μετα-), from μετά,<ref>[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3Dmeta%2F μετά], 
Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, ''A Greek-English Lexicon'', on Perseus Digital Library</ref> which typically means "after", "beside", "with" or "among". Other meanings include "beyond", "adjacent" and "self", and it is also used in the forms μετ- before vowels and μεθ- "meth-" before [[aspirated vowel]]s.

The earliest form of the word "meta" is the [[Mycenaean Greek]] ''me-ta'', written in [[Linear B]] syllabic script.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.palaeolexicon.com/default.aspx?static=12&wid=417|work=Palaeolexicon.com|title=The Linear B word me-ta}}</ref> The Greek preposition is [[cognate]] with the [[Old English]] preposition [[wikt:mid#Etymology 1|''mid'']] "with", still found as a prefix in ''midwife''. Its use in English is the result of [[back-formation]] from the word "metaphysics". In origin ''[[Metaphysics (Aristotle)|Metaphysics]]'' was just the title of one of the principal works of [[Aristotle]]; it was so named (by [[Andronicus of Rhodes]]) because in the customary ordering of the works of Aristotle it was the book following ''[[Physics (Aristotle)|Physics]]''; it thus meant nothing more than "[the book that comes] after [the book entitled] ''Physics''". However, even Latin writers misinterpreted this as entailing metaphysics constituted "the science of what is beyond the physical".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=metaphysics|title=Metaphysics|work=[[Online Etymology Dictionary]]}}</ref> Nonetheless, Aristotle's ''Metaphysics'' enunciates considerations of a nature{{clarify |date=December 2022}} above physical reality, which one can examine through certain philosophy – for example, such a thing as an [[unmoved mover]]. The use of the prefix was later extended to other contexts, based on the understanding of metaphysics as meaning "the science of what is beyond the physical".

==Early use in English==
The ''[[Oxford English Dictionary]]'' cites uses of the ''meta-'' prefix as "beyond, about" (such as meta-economics and meta-philosophy) going back to 1917. However, these formations are 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 being 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]].")

A notable early citation is [[W. V. O. Quine]]'s 1937 use of the word "metatheorem",<ref>Willard Van Orman Quine, "Logic Based on Inclusion and Abstraction", The ''Journal of Symbolic Logic'', Vol. 2, No. 4, pp.&nbsp;145–152, December 1937</ref> where meta- has the modern meaning of "an X about X". 

[[Douglas Hofstadter]], in his 1979 book ''[[Gödel, Escher, Bach]]'' (and in the 1985 sequel, ''[[Metamagical Themas]]''), popularized this meaning of the term. The book, which deals with [[self-reference]] and [[strange loop]]s, and touches on Quine and his work, was influential in many computer-related subcultures and may be responsible for the popularity of the prefix, for its use as a solo term, and for the many recent coinages which use it.<ref>{{Cite magazine|title=Meta-Musings|last=Cohen|first=Noam|date=Sep 5, 1988|magazine=The New Republic}}</ref> Hofstadter uses meta as a stand-alone word, 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 when somebody says "This debate isn't going anywhere"). This book may also be responsible for the association of "meta" with strange loops, as opposed to just abstraction. According to Hofstadter, it is about [[self-reference]], which means a sentence, idea or formula refers to itself. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary describes it as "showing or suggesting an explicit awareness of itself or oneself as a member of its category: cleverly self-referential".<ref>{{Cite web|title=Definition of META|url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/meta|access-date=2021-11-19|website=www.merriam-webster.com|language=en}}</ref> The sentence "This sentence contains thirty-six letters," and the sentence which embeds it, are examples of "metasentences" referencing themselves in this way. As maintained in the book [[Gödel, Escher, Bach]], a strange loop is given if different logical statements or theories are put together in contradiction, thus distorting the meaning and generating logical paradoxes. One example is the [[liar paradox]], a paradox in philosophy or logic that arises when a sentence claims its own falsehood (or untruth); for instance: "This sentence is not true." Until the beginning of the 20th century, this kind of paradox was a considerable problem for a philosophical theory of truth. [[Alfred Tarski]] solved this difficulty by proving that such paradoxes do not exist with a consistent separation of object language and metalanguage.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/911179637|title=Unifying the philosophy of truth|date=2015|others=Theodora Achourioti, Henri Galinon, José Martínez Fernández, Kentaro Fujimoto|isbn=978-94-017-9673-6|location=Dordrecht|oclc=911179637}}</ref> "For every formalized language, a formally correct and factually applicable definition of the true statement can be constructed in the metalanguage with the sole help of expressions of a general-logical character, expressions of the language itself and of terms from the morphology of the language, but on the condition that the metalanguage is of a higher order than the language that is the subject of the investigation."<ref>Alfred Tarski: ''Der Wahrheitsbegriff in den formalisierten Sprachen'', in: Studia Philosophica [Lemberg] 1 (1936), S. 261–405 [https://www.w-k-essler.de/pdfs/Tarski.pdf pdf]</ref>

== ''Meta'' in gaming ==
{{Main|Metagaming#Competitive gaming}}
''Metagaming'' is a general term describing an approach to playing a game as optimally as possible within its current rules. The shorthand ''meta'' has been [[Backronym|backronymed]] as "Most Effective Tactics Available" to tersely explain the concept. 
{{Excerpt|Metagaming#Competitive gaming|hat=no}}

== See also ==
{{Portal|Philosophy|Greece}}
* {{section link|Benzene|Nomenclature}}
* [[Fourth wall]]
* [[Metaverse]]

== References ==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
*[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/resolveform?type=start&lookup=meta&lang=greek List of ancient Greek words starting with ''meta-''], on Perseus

{{Meta-prefix}}

[[Category:Abstraction]]
[[Category:Concepts in epistemology]]
[[Category:Philosophical methodology]]
[[Category:Self-reference]]
[[Category:Prefixes]]