after-deathn.adj.
/ˈɑːftədɛθ/, /ˈaftədɛθ/, U.S. /ˈæftərˌdɛθ/ A. n.
Now usually in the form afterdeath. An existence which follows death; an afterlife.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > source or principle of life > [noun] > life to come
afterlife1598
next worlda1625
after-death1650
1650 J. Horn Θυρα Ανεωγμενη 20 He must undergo those torments for All, which were properly inflicted upon men for their abuse of that liberty which he virtually gave them to enjoy by his after-death.
1669 R. Allestree 18 Serm. v. 84 Though present satisfactions are not able to engage you upon present ruin they can upon the after-death.
1823 Miss Crumpe Isabel St. Albe II. xiii. 139 Fleeting moments..would prove the future relics of feeling, to which, in the after death of sentiment, memory might revert.
1840 Southern Literary Messenger July 503/2 Such happiness can be attained only in the after-death.
1899 W. S. Blunt Satan Absolved 40 In the long after-death Ye shall be burned with fire.
1907 Folk-lore June 164 That belief in an after-death or life of souls.
1923 D. H. Lawrence Stud. Classic Amer. Lit. vi. 109 It is true, as William James and Conan Doyle and the rest allow, that a spirit can persist in the after-death.
1982 E. Lunn Marxism & Modernism (1984) ix. 273 Powerful suggestions of the afterlife, or afterdeath, of..individualism.
2004 R. Kastenbaum On our Way ix. 341 What becomes of the soul in the afterdeath is the natural consequence of the biography it has written for itself.
B. adj.
Relating to a period after death; following or taking place after death. Cf. post-mortem adj.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > death > [adjective] > before or after death
posthume1598
posthumous1608
posthumeda1661
after-death1680
post-mortuary1791
post-mortem1816
post-obit1822
post-obituary1822
pre-mortem1892
1680 O. Walker Of Benefits Saviour vii. 144 A glympse of the after-death condition of the souls of the Blessed.
1833 H. Ellison Madmoments II. 434 So too has Spinosa been first persecuted, and then, by an afterdeath Accumulation of Injustice, traduced and falsified.
1843 Lancet 27 May 319/1 It was difficult to infer from the history of the case or the after-death appearances what the illustrious duke did really die from.
1895 J. M. Falkner Lost Stradivarius iv. 46 The mystery which veils from our eyes the secrets of an after-death existence.
1929 B. Jarrett Hist. Europe x. 546 An after-death punishment for evil.
1978 I. Currie You cannot Die iii. 106 An out-of-the-body experience by a living person must..be very similar to an after-death state.
2002 NFT Programme Booklet Oct.–Nov. 21/1 Bloome gradually unfolds his after-death plans for his diaries.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2011; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
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n.adj.1650