after

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See also After, and æfter

Contents

English[edit]

English Wikipedia has an article on:

Wikipedia en

Alternative forms[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Middle English after, from Old English æfter (“after, along, behind, through, throughout, during, following, in consequence of, according to, for the purpose of, by means of, about, in pursuit of, for”), from Proto-Germanic *after, *aftiri (“more aft, further behind”), from Proto-Indo-European *apotero (“further behind, further away”), comparative form of *apo- (“off, behind”); see also Proto-Indo-European *h₂epo (“off, away”) and English aft. Cognate with Scots efter (“after”), North Frisian efter (“after, behind”), Dutch/Low German achter (“behind”), German After (“anus”), Danish & Swedish efter (“after”), Norwegian etter (“after”), Icelandic eftir (“after”), Icelandic aftur (“back, again”). The Proto-Indo-European is the source of apo- (“away, without”), from Ancient Greek ἀπό (apo); comparative is also the source of Ancient Greek ἀπωτέρω (apōterō, “further”).

The Irish usage to indicate recent completion of an activity is a calque of the Irish collocation Tá mé tar éis/i ndiaidh... ("I have just...").

Pronunciation[edit]

  • (UK) IPA: /ˈɑːftə(ɹ)/, /ˈæf.tə(ɹ)/, X-SAMPA: /"A:ft@(r\)/, /"{ft@(r\)/
  • (US) IPA: /ˈæftɚ/, X-SAMPA: /"{ft@`/
  • Audio (US)
    		(file)
  • Hyphenation: af‧ter

Adverb[edit]

after (not comparable)

  1. Behind; later in time; following.
    They lived happily ever after.
    I left the room, and the dog bounded after.

Derived terms[edit]

terms derived from after (adverb)

Translations[edit]

behind; later in time; following

Preposition[edit]

after

  1. Subsequently to; following in time; later than.
    We had a few beers after the game.
    The time is quarter after eight.
    The Cold War began shortly after the Second World War
    • 2012 April 15, Phil McNulty, “Tottenham 1-5 Chelsea”, BBC:
      After early sparring, Spurs started to take control as the interval approached and twice came close to taking the lead. Terry blocked Rafael van der Vaart's header on the line and the same player saw his cross strike the post after Adebayor was unable to apply a touch.
  2. behind
    he will leave a trail of destruction after him
  3. in pursuit of, seeking
    he's after a job
    run after him
    inquire after her health
  4. in allusion to, in imitation of; following or referencing
    we named him after his grandfather
    a painting after Leonardo da Vinci
  5. next in importance or rank
    The princess is next in line to the throne after the prince.
  6. as a result of
    After your bad behaviour, you will be punished.
  7. in spite of
    After all that has happened, he is still my friend.
  8. (Ireland, usually preceded by a form of be, followed by an -ing form of a verb) Used to indicate recent completion of an activity
    I was after finishing my dinner when there was a knock on the door.
    • 1875, Patrick Kennedy, Evenings in the Duffrey, page 283:
      He was after walking on the Thursday, Friday, and Saturday before, all the way from the County Limerick, where his brother, Father John, has a parish; and you may believe, the poor man was tired
    • 1906, Lady Gregory, “A Miracle Play”, The Shanachie, volume 1: 
      Mother: Let him get away out of this now, himself and his share of songs. Look at the way he has your bib destroyed that I was after washing in the morning!
    • 2004, Joseph O'Connor, Star of the Sea[1], page 40:
      When I woke up it was black-dark and the music was after stopping. I could taste the bread I was after eating in the dream, as sweet and luscious as any I ever knew
    • 2004, Tabor Evans, Longarm and the Great Milk Train Robbery:
      He asked directions to the dairy those milk cans had shown up late at. Corrigan pointed back the way he'd come and explained, “You'd have been after riding past their loading platform because they don't have their sign overlooking where the train would be after stopping.
    • 2008, M. P. Shiel, The Black Box, page 45:
      "Yes. And where were you when the flood broke loose?" / "I would be most of the way to the Old House then. O'Loughlin was after running in wild to tell me he was hearing the Banshee out at The Old House, […] ."
  9. (obsolete) according to an author or text

Usage notes[edit]

  • The Irish English usage example is equivalent to "I had just finished my dinner when […] .".

Derived terms[edit]

terms derived from after (preposition)

Translations[edit]

subsequently; following in time; later than
behind
in pursuit of, seeking
in allusion to, in imitation of; following or referencing
next in importance or rank
as a result of
in spite of
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.
Translations to be checked

Conjunction[edit]

after

  1. Signifies that the action of the clause it starts takes place before the action of the other clause.
    I went home after we had decided to call it a day.
    • 1991, Donald "Shadow" Rimgale (character), Robert DeNiro (actor), Backdraft
      So you punched out a window for ventilation. Was that before or after you noticed you were standing in a lake of gasoline?

Translations[edit]

Signifies that the action of its clause takes place before the action of the other clause

Adjective[edit]

after

  1. (dated) Later; second (of two); next, following, subsequent
    • 1834, David Crockett, A Narrative of the Life of, Nebraska 1987, p. 72:
      I did verily believe in my own mind, that I couldn't fight in that way at all; but my after experience convinced me that this was all a notion.
    • 1886, Thomas Hardy, The Mayor of Casterbridge‎
      The amends he had made in after life were lost sight of in the dramatic glare of the original act.
  2. (nautical, where the frame of reference is within the ship) At or towards the stern of a ship
    The after gun is mounted aft.
    The after gun is abaft the forward gun.

Usage notes[edit]

  • As shown in the examples above, the adverb in this nautical usage is aft and the related preposition is abaft.

Derived terms[edit]

Related terms[edit]

References[edit]

  • Andrea Tyler and Vyvyan Evans, "Spatial particles of orientation", in The Semantics of English Prepositions: Spatial Scenes, Embodied Meaning and Cognition, Cambridge University Press, 2003, 0-521-81430 8

Statistics[edit]

Anagrams[edit]

Old High German[edit]

Alternative forms[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Proto-Germanic *after, whence also Old English æfter, Old Norse aptr.

Pronunciation[edit]

  • IPA: /ˈaf.ter/

Preposition[edit]

after (+ dative)

  1. after
    after zweim tagon
    after two days
  2. according to, in
    after antreitu
    in order

Adverb[edit]

after

  1. behind
  2. after
  3. back

References[edit]

  • Joseph Wright, An Old High German Primer
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