Aft

Part of speech: adverb, adjective

Pronunciation: /ɑːft/

Definitions

1. Situated at the rear of a vessel or ship
2. Referring to the part toward the rear end of a vessel or airplane
3. Describing a position at or near the stern of a boat or the tail of a plane

Etymology: The source suggests "aft" may be a superlative formed from "of" (meaning "off"), which would make it the oldest-sounding kind of English form: "after" was originally the comparative of the same root, and "aft" the superlative, so the pair marks degrees of distance from a starting point. In Old English the comparative "æfter" meant "farther behind" or "later," and the superlative "æftemest" was the sense "furthest back," so "aft" is a worn-down relic of a family of words that once ranked positions along a line. The sense of direction came first and sharpened into a nautical term. Sailors used "aft" for the stern end of a ship, the part farthest from the bow, and that is how most people now meet it, in phrases like "aft cabin" or "fore and aft." The word is also the root of the adverb "abaft," meaning toward or at the stern, which shows how it was once combined with prepositions to specify position.

Synonyms: rear, stern

Antonyms: fore, front