etymology of meta

[Derek Rayside]

Your etymology of meta is a bit off:  yes, it's current use as "of a
higher order" is due to Aristotle's book on the Metaphysics, but he would
never have called it that.  Aristotle would refer to the subject of that
book as First Philosophy or Theology.  The title "Metaphysics" comes from
Andronicus of Rhodes (1st century BC), who was the first editor of
Aristotle and placed the book on the Metaphysics after the book on the
Physics in his compilation (so, it was quite literally "after" the
Physics).  This is how the word shifted from it's Greek meaning to the
meaning it has in Latin and English (and presumably other modern
European languages, although I cannot speak for them).  It retains the
original meaning in modern Greek.

Best regards,
Derek