Afterwork
Part of speech: noun
Definitions
- A time frame that comes after the end of the daily job
- The period occurring once daily employment has concluded and regular tasks are finished
- The interval that begins when professional duties cease for the day and leisure or other activities may start
Etymology: "Afterwork" is simply the closed-up spelling of "after-work", a compound formed from the preposition-turned-adjective "after" and the noun "work". The pairing is transparent: it names the stretch of time that follows the working day, and the hyphen version and the solid version are both acceptable forms of the same word. Because the word is built from two plain English elements rather than borrowed from another language, there is no foreign root to trace. Its meaning comes directly from how the parts combine, with "after" marking what comes later in sequence and "work" referring to paid or required labour. Writers tend to use the solid spelling, which is why it often appears in dictionaries and headlines as a single unit.
Synonyms: post-work, after hours