posterity

English

Etymology

Late 14th century, from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Middle French posterité, from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Latin posteritas, from posterus (“following, coming after”), from post (“after”) (English post-).

Displaced Old English words such as æftergengnes, æfterweardnes, and cnēores.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pɒˈstɛɹɪti/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪti
• Rhymes: -ɛɹəti

Noun

posterity (usually uncountable, plural posterities)

1. All the future generations, especially the descendants of a specific person.
   • 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 1, in The China Governess‎^[1]:

     The original family who had begun to build a palace to rival Nonesuch had died out before they had put up little more than the gateway, so that the actual structure which had come down to posterity retained the secret magic of a promise rather than the overpowering splendour of a great architectural achievement.

Related terms

• See post-

Translations

all the future generations

• Czech: potomstvo (cs) n
• Danish: eftertid c
• Dutch: nageslacht (nl) n
• Finnish: jälkipolvet pl, jälkimaailma sg; jälkeläiset pl
• French: postérité (fr) f
• German: (of humanity at large) Nachwelt (de) f; (of a particular person) Nachkommen (de) pl
• Irish: síolradh m
• Italian: posteri (it) m pl
• Manx: sluight m
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Persian: آیندگان (fa) (âyandegân)
• Polish: potomstwo (pl) n
• Portuguese: posteridade (pt) f
• Romanian: posteritate (ro) f
• Russian: пото́мство (ru) n (potómstvo)
• Serbo-Croatian: potomstvo (sh) n
• Spanish: posteridad (es) f
• Turkish: nesil (tr), soy (tr), zürriyet (tr)