Hereafter

Part of speech: adverb

Pronunciation: /hɪɹˈæftɚ/

Definitions

1. From this moment and onward into the future
2. Starting at this point in time and continuing into the future
3. Beginning now and extending indefinitely onward

Etymology: Old English speakers built "hēræfter" from two plain words: "hēr", meaning "here" or "in this place", and "æfter", meaning "after" or "behind". Put together, the compound described the time that lay behind the present moment, the "aftertime" that stretched on from now. Its earliest sense was therefore a forward-looking one, pointing to whatever came later rather than to a formal promise about the future. Over the centuries the word kept its structure while its meaning narrowed toward the present. The "here" in it does not refer to a physical location at all; it marks the speaker's own point in time, so "hereafter" comes to mean "from this point on". The same pattern shows up in its sibling words "hereby", "herein" and "hereto", where "here" similarly sets the reader's or speaker's current position as the reference point.

Synonyms: afterward, later

Antonyms: before