/ˈɑːftəmæθ/·noun·c. 1523, in the sense of 'second growth of grass after mowing'; figurative sense attested c. 1650s·Established
Origin
Old English æftermǣþ literally means 'the mowing that comes after' — the second growth of grass following the first hay harvest — from PIE *meh₁- (to mow), the same root that gives us meadow (mowed land) and mow; by the 17th century the word had shifted metaphorically to mean 'consequences of an event', accumulating negative connotation until now almost exclusively evoking disaster, while its agricultural morpheme math became opaque, surviving only as a fossil inside the compound.
Definition
The consequences or results following a significant, usually destructive, event; originally the second crop of grass cut after the first mowing of the season.
The Full Story
Old English / Early Modern EnglishOE–17th centurywell-attested
'Aftermath' is a compound of the preposition 'after' and the Old English noun 'mǣþ' (also spelled 'mæð'), meaning 'a mowing' or 'the act of cutting grass.' Theelement 'math' descends from Proto-Germanic *mēþiz, itself from the PIE root *meh₁- 'to mow, to cut down (grass or grain).' The earliest attested form of the compound is 'aftermath' in the sense of 'a second crop of grass grown after the first mowing of the season,' recorded in English
Did you know?
The 'math' in 'aftermath' is a genuine OldEnglish word meaning 'a mowing' — completely unrelated to mathematics. It shares a root with 'mow' and 'meadow', all descending from PIE *meh₁- (to cut, to reap). A meadow is literally 'mowed land' — named not for what grows there
after the cutting.' The semantic shift from the agricultural sense to the figurative meaning 'consequences of an event (especially a harmful one)' is first clearly documented in the 17th century, the earliest figurative uses appearing around the 1650s–1660s, with the metaphorical extension treating any large disruptive event (battle, storm, disaster) as a 'first mowing' from which results or consequences 'grow back.' The PIE root *meh₁- also gives Old English 'mawan' (to mow), Modern English 'mow,' Old English 'mǣd' (meadow, a place where grass is mowed), Modern English 'meadow,' and 'mead' in its archaic sense of an open grassy field. The root is attested across Germanic: Old High German 'māen,' Dutch 'maaien.' Scholarly grounding appears in the OED (s.v. 'aftermath'), Bosworth–Toller's Anglo-Saxon Dictionary (s.v. 'mǣþ'), and Watkins' American Heritage Dictionary of PIE Roots. Key roots: *meh₁- (Proto-Indo-European: "to mow, to cut down (grass or grain)"), *mēþiz (Proto-Germanic: "a mowing, a cutting of grass"), mǣþ (Old English: "mowing; a crop of grass cut at one time").