meaning - What is the opposite of "meta"?


A while back I was talking about it with friends.


Another question indicates a few meanings of the "meta-" prefix. Considering that "meta" means, in simple words, "about itself" (like how metadata is data about data), what would be the appropriate prefix to mean the opposite relationship?


It seemed to us that "meta" raised a concept to a new level, and we were wondering what prefix would, conversely, lower a concept to another level. Is there another prefix I could use to cancel out the "meta" in "metadata" to get back to "data"?



Answer



Meta- comes from Ancient Greek, and in this sense means beyond, with, about or after. An example is Aristotle's Metaphysics which his editors placed after his Physics, and started readers thinking it might mean more than location. That suggests to me that the Latin pre- or Greek pro- could be possible antonyms used in a similar way.


But this would only help if people used it. Shall we try to push premetadata or prometadata? Or would actual data be more easily understood?


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