Considering how much discussion in the forums of any artificial
language is _about_ the language rather than _in_ the language (and
therefore meta),
and considering how many words in the Lojban flashcards are defined as
"metalinguistic not," "metalinguistic yes," and so forth,
I am extremely surprised that a best practice for expressing the
concept of "meta" was not worked out decades ago.
Although the connection between "physics" and "metaphysics" seems substantive, American Heritage Dictionary (& yes if I had an OED I'd check it) states that "meta" here means "after", because Aristotle's treatise on first principles (ta meta ta phusika) appears after the one on natural sciences (phusika) in the principal medieval manuscript. AHD doesn't have a def. of "meta-" as we understand it. This is all just to counsel caution not to confuse the traditional usage of "meta-" ("metabolism", "metamorphosis", &c.) and the newer usage ("metafiction") which I conjecture derives from "metaphysics". Sorry if that was too OT. mu'o mi'e komfo,amonan