after
UK /ˈɑːftə/ · US /ˈæftəɹ/ adverb, preposition, conjunction, adjective, noun
Forms afters
- adverb Behind; later in time; following. “I left the room, and the dog bounded after.”
- preposition Subsequently to; following in time; later than. “We had a few beers after the game.”
- preposition Subsequently to and as a result of. “Sucess comes after hard work.”
- preposition Subsequently to and considering. “I’m not putting you in charge again after the last disaster.”
- preposition Subsequently to and in spite of. “After all that has happened, he is still my friend.”
- preposition (often with verbs related to cleaning or tidying) Subsequently to the actions of (someone), in order to remedy a situation. “I'm tired of picking up after you. Why can't you clean your own messes?”
- preposition (in reduplicative expressions) Repeatedly, seemingly in a sequence without end. “day after day, time after time, mile after mile, beer after beer, smile after smile”
- preposition (Ireland, Newfoundland, 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. [= I had just finished my dinner when ...]”
- preposition Behind. “He will leave a trail of destruction after him.”
- conjunction Signifies that the action of the clause it starts takes place before the action of the other clause. “The show ends after the fat lady sings.”
- adjective (dated) Later; second (of two); next, following, subsequent
- adjective (nautical or aeronautical, where the frame of reference is within the craft) At or towards the stern of a ship or the rear of an aircraft. “The after gun is mounted aft.”
- noun Of before-and-after images: the one that shows the difference after a specified treatment.
Synonyms
Etymology
From Middle English after, from Old English æfter, from Proto-West Germanic *aftar, from Proto-Germanic *after, *aftiri, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂epoteros (“further behind, further away”), from *h₂epo (“off, away”).
Cognate with Scots efter (“after”), North Frisian efter (“after, behind”), West Frisian after, achter, efter (“behind; after”), Low German and Dutch achter (“behind”), German after- (“after-”), Danish and Swedish efter (“after”), Norwegian Bokmål and Norwegian Nynorsk etter (“after”), Faroese and Icelandic eftir (“after”).
The Irish usage to indicate recent completion of an activity is a calque of the Irish collocation Táim tar éis... (“I have just...”, literally “I am after...”).
Webster’s 1913
- adjective Next; later in time; subsequent; succeeding; as, an after period of life. Marshall.
- adjective Hinder; nearer the rear. (Naut.)
- preposition Behind in place; as, men in line one after another. "Shut doors after you." Shak.
- preposition Below in rank; next to in order. Shak.
Etymology [AS. æfter after, behind; akin to Goth. aftaro, aftra, backwards, Icel. aptr, Sw. and Dan. efter, OHG. aftar behind, Dutch and LG. achter, Gr. -ter is an old comparative suffix, in E. generally -ther (as in other), and after is a compar. of of, off. Of; cf. Aft.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “after”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details