After — From Proto-Germanic to English | etymologist.ai
after
/ˈæf.tɚ/·preposition·before 900 CE·Established
Origin
Literally a comparative meaning 'farther off' — built on thesameroot as 'of' and 'off.'
Definition
In the time following an event; behind in place or order; in pursuit of; in imitation of or according to.
The Full Story
Proto-Germanicbefore 900 CEwell-attested
From OldEnglish aefter (behind, following), from Proto-Germanic *after (behind, after), from PIE *h2ep-tero- (farther behind), the comparative form of *h2epo (away from, off). ThePIEroot *h2epo is also the source of Greek apo (away from), Latin ab (from, away), Sanskrit apa (away), and the English prefix "of-/off." The comparative suffix *-tero- (seen also in Latin alter, "the other of two") marks
in time) developed from the universal metaphor where the past is behind us and the future ahead — except that in Old English, as in many archaic Indo-European
." The word has remained remarkably stable across Germanic languages for over a thousand years, retaining both its spatial and temporal senses. Its use as a conjunction ("after he left") developed in Middle English, while the compound "afternoon" appeared in the 13th century. Key roots: *af (Proto-Germanic: "off, away"), *-ter (Proto-Germanic: "comparative suffix"), *h₂epo (Proto-Indo-European: "off, away from").