Etymology: < post-classical Latin metaphysica (6th cent. in the title of a work by Aristotle (see below); from c1200 in British sources) < meta- meta- prefix + physica (see physics n.), probably after Byzantine Greek μεταϕυσικά : see -ic suffix 2. Compare Old French, Middle French, French métaphysique (c1282 in Old French as metaphisique), Spanish metafísica (c1280), Italian metafisica (c1304), Portuguese metafísica (14th cent.), Dutch metafysica, German Metaphysik (18th cent.), Swedish metafysik (1734), Polish metafizyka, Russian metafizika (1721).Post-classical Latin metaphysica is first attested in 6th cent. in Boethius De Interpretatione Aristotelis (where it is emended by Meiser to μετὰ τὰ ϕυσικά ), and is common from about 12th cent. The earliest evidence for Byzantine Greek μεταϕυσικά is also from the 6th cent. In both Latin and Greek it is used as the title of a work by Aristotle. In the 6th cent. it appears also as μετὰ τὰ ϕυσικά . It is probable that in early copies of the 6th cent. Greek sources there was little or no word division or accentuation, so μεταϕυσικά as a work title, originally two words, came to be treated as one word. Asclepius in his commentary on the Metaphysics says that Aristotle thought that ontological philosophy should be taught after natural philosophy, and that this explains why the work is entitled μετὰ τὰ ϕυσικά ‘After the Physics’. Asclepius does not say who first gave the work that title; modern scholars sometimes assume that the title goes back to Eudemus of Rhodes (later 4th cent. b.c.), who, according to Asclepius, produced an edition of the work. The explanation which Asclepius offers for the title of the work receives support from the fact that, as Porphyry (3rd cent., in In Aristotelis Categorias Expositio) and some later writers make clear, Aristotle's Categories was sometimes called πρὸ τῶν τοπικῶν or πρὸ τῶν τόπων ‘Before the Topics’. As a work title μετὰ (τὰ) ϕυσικά can be found in apposition to either a feminine singular article, or to a neuter plural article. Olympiodorus (6th cent.) uses the title with both neuter plural and feminine singular articles within a few lines of each other, and in both cases treats μεταϕυσικά as indeclinable. Simplicius (6th cent.) provides the first clear case where the title is treated as a declinable feminine singular noun (τῆς μεταϕυσικῆς ), and metaphysica is usually treated as a declinable feminine singular noun in post-classical Latin. The title came to be used as the name for the branch of study treated in these books, and hence came to be interpreted as meaning ‘the science of things transcending what is physical or natural’. This interpretation is first recorded in (?Pseudo-)Basil of Caesarea Enarratio in Prophetam Isiam 5.162 τὰ τῆς ϕυσιολογίας ἀνώτερα προκόψσας, τά καλούμενα παρά τισι μεταϕυσικά . In scholastic Latin writers this interpretation was general (being reinforced, perhaps, by the known equivalence of the prefixes meta- and trans- in various compounds: see meta- prefix); and in English its influence is seen in the custom, frequent down to the 17th cent., of explaining metaphysical by words like ‘supernatural’, ‘transnatural’, etc. Compare metaphysics n. 3, and metaphysical adj. II. Only the singular form appears in English before the 16th cent., probably because post-classical Latin metaphysica was usually treated, as far as can be discerned, as a feminine singular noun (see above). In the 17th and 18th cent. it was largely superseded by metaphysics n. (as was physic n. by physics n.), although in the 19th cent. the singular again began to be preferred by many philosophical writers (probably after German Metaphysik).

Etymology: < post-classical Latin metaphysicus, adjective (from c1260 or earlier in British sources; from a1217 in British sources as noun in sense ‘metaphysician’) < metaphysica (see metaphysics n.). With use as adjective, compare Italian metafisico (a1321), Middle French, French métaphysique (1546 in Middle French as metaphisique ), Spanish metafísico (17th cent.; also in form metaphysico (1734)). Compare earlier metaphysical adj. and n.

Etymology: < metaphysic n.¹, perhaps after French métaphysiquer (1737).