Afterdays

Part of speech: adverb

Definitions

1. Refers to the times or days that are yet to come, especially in the distant future
2. Describes the later period of time that lies ahead, beyond the present moment
3. The coming years or days, viewed as a stretch of time still to be lived through

Etymology: "Afterdays" is a plain compound of "after" and "days," and its sense is close to its parts: "in later times" or "in the days to come." "After" comes from Old English "æfter," meaning behind or following, and "day" from Old English "dæg." The word is now archaic and mostly poetic, found in older literature and in deliberately antiquated prose, where it has the same meaning it had when English speakers first joined the two words. Its plural "days" is what gives it its time sense, since the phrase means the days that follow a given point. The formation is transparent enough that a reader can usually work out the meaning without a dictionary.