Posthumous

Part of speech: adjective

Pronunciation: /ˈpɒs.t͡ʃə.məs/

Definitions

1. Occurring, awarded, or published after someone's death
2. Relating to events or recognitions that take place once an individual has died
3. Taking place or given after a person's death, especially an award or publication

Etymology: Latin "postumus" was the superlative of "posterus" ("coming after"), so the word originally meant "last-born" or "coming last" in a sequence. Roman usage applied it to a child born after its father's death, and the notion of a posthumous child passed into the wider sense of something that comes after a person's death. The "h" that appears in the English spelling is a later addition, made in Latin "posthumus" by association with "humus" ("ground, earth"), as if the child had been born from the earth where its father was buried. The spelling "posthumous" thus rests on a false connection: the "h" has nothing to do with the root meaning, which was purely about sequence. Yet the mistaken link to burial has stuck, and English readers have long read the word as being about the grave.

Synonyms: afterdeath, post-mortem