<P> The prefix comes from the Greek preposition and prefix meta - (μετά -), from μετά, which meant "after", "beside", "with", "among" (with respect to the preposition, some of these meanings were distinguished by case marking). Other meanings include "beyond", "adjacent" and "self", and it is also used in the form μητα - as a prefix in Greek, with variants μετ - before vowels and μεθ - "meth -" before aspirated vowels . </P> <P> The earliest form of the word "meta" is the Mycenaean Greek me - ta, written in Linear B syllabic script . The Greek preposition is cognate with the Old English preposition 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 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; 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". Nonetheless, Aristotle's Metaphysics enunciates considerations of natures above physical realities, which one can examine through this particular part of philosophy, e.g., the existence of God . The use of the prefix was later extended to other contexts based on the understanding of metaphysics to mean "the science of what is beyond the physical". </P> <P> 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 .") </P> <P> A notable early citation is Quine's 1937 use of the word "metatheorem", where meta - has the modern meaning of "an X about X". (Note 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). </P>

What does the prefix meta mean in biology