![]() ![]() ![]() "Meta" is a prefix meaning "referring to itself." This has evolved into a variety of meanings that are used today. On September 10th, 2015, a Reddit thread posted to the /r/OutOfTheLoop subreddit asked the question, “What the fuck does meta mean?” The top reply from Redditor johnadreams said: On June 4th, 2012, MobaFire user IOWNEDYA posted the term (seen below) in a forum thread that explained the meaning as it applies to League of Legends. Within the gaming community, particularly with MOBAs (multiplayer online battle arenas), it appears frequently in use around the early 2010s alongside the acronym, Most Effective Tactic Available. The exact first use of the term appearing online in its modern sense is unknown, but according to ’s definition of the word, “meta” took root in gaming communities sometime during the 1990s to 2000s, and “metagaming” was used in the late 1990s by Dungeons & Dragons players to refer to “an in-game character unfairly using information gathered outside of the game world by their player.” SpreadĪnother common expression in early usage is “that’s so meta,” which was discussed on December 25th, 2005, in a New York Times article, titled “What's the Meta?” ![]() Before the internet adapted the term, meta was primarily used in scientific terms as a prefix, such as “metaphysics.” The word “meta” originally stems from the Ancient Greeks, who used it to imply “beyond” or “after” (similar to the Latin “post-” prefix) but in modern language, it is typically used as a prefix to show when something is referring to itself. ![]()
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