latter
/ˈlæt.ɚ/ adjective, noun
- adjective Near (or nearer) to the end.
- adjective In the past, but close (or closer) to the present time. “In his latter years my dad became very absent-minded.”
- noun (preceding with "the") The second of aforementioned two items. “The archaic past participle shapen is only used in misshapen, ill-shapen, and well-shapen (the latter two are much less common, though).”
Synonyms
Antonyms
Etymology
From Middle English latter, lattere, lattre, from Old English lætra, comparative form of læt (“late”). Equivalent to late + -er, thus a doublet of later; also, related to last, whose doublet is latest.
Webster’s 1913
- adjective Later; more recent; coming or happening after something else; --opposed to former; as, the former and latter rain.
- adjective Of two things, the one mentioned second.
Etymology [OE. later, lætter, compar. of lat late. See Late, and cf. Later.]
Sources: Wiktionary · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “latter”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details