aftermath

That which happens after, that which follows, usually of strongly negative connotation in most contexts, implying a preceding catastrophe.

Noun

  1. That which happens after, that which follows, usually of strongly negative connotation in most contexts, implying a preceding catastrophe.
    • In contrast to most projections of the aftermath of nuclear war, in this there is no rioting or looting.
    • Fogel, working with a script by the journalist Kerry Howley, follows Winner from the age of nine to the aftermath of her plea, and organizes the movie around voice-over reminiscences by Reality (the character is played...
    • More than a quarter of a century after the fraught events that followed the privatisation of the railway, Corbett has provided a warts and all analysis of what led to the spate of rail disasters in the aftermath of the...

    Synonyms: lattermath

    Antonyms: foremath beforemath

  2. A second mowing; the grass which grows after the first crop of hay in the same season.
    • They were cutting aftermath on all sides, which gave the neighbourhood, this gusty autumn morning, an untimely smell of hay. - 1879, Robert Louis Stevenson, Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes:

    Synonyms: lattermath rowen

    Antonyms: foremath beforemath

Origin

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₂ep Proto-Indo-European *-o Proto-Indo-European *h₂epó Proto-Indo-European *-teros Proto-Indo-European *h₂ep(o)teros Proto-Germanic *after Old English æfter Middle English after English after ▲ Old English æfter Old English æfter- Middle English after- English after- English math English aftermath From after- + math (“a mowing”).

Forms

aftermaths