Metaphysics

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Philosophy

Etymology

The word "metaphysics" derives from the Greek words μετά (metá,) and φυσικά (physiká, "physics").^[5]*

It has been suggested that the term might have been coined by a first century CE editor who assembled various small selections of Aristotle's works into the treatise we now know by the name Metaphysics (μετὰ τὰ φυσικά, meta ta physika, lit. 'after the Physics ' – another of Aristotle's works).^[6]

The prefix meta- ("after") indicates that these works come "after" the chapters on physics.

Aristotle himself did not call the subject of his books "metaphysics"; he referred to it as "first philosophy" (Greek: πρώτη φιλοσοφία; Latin: philosophia prima).

The editor of Aristotle's works, Andronicus of Rhodes, is thought to have placed the books on first philosophy right after another work, Physics, and called them τὰ μετὰ τὰ φυσικὰ βιβλία (tà metà tà physikà biblía*) or "the books [that come] after the [books on] physics".^[7]