afterburdenn.
/ˈɑːftəˌbəːdn/, /ˈaftəˌbəːdn/, U.S. /ˈæftərˌbərd(ə)n/ 1. = afterbirth n. 1a. Also figurative. Now historical and rare.
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the world > life > biology > biological processes > procreation or reproduction > embryo or fetus > membranes, etc., of embryo or fetus > [noun] > placenta
secundine1398
afterburden?a1450
second birtha1513
afterbirth1527
second1562
glean1601
bed1611
placenta1638
sooterkina1658
womb-cake1657
womb-liver1657
womb-pancake1663
?a1450 tr. Macer Herbal (Stockh.) (1949) 73 Drinke þe iuus of þis herbe, and hit wole putte oute þe afterburthen [BL Add. afterbuthyn].
?1550 H. Llwyd tr. Pope John XXI Treasury of Healthe sig. O.vii Sethe sage and drinke it, eyther stampe it and lay to the matrix, for both ways it prouoketh the flouers and after burthens.
1576 G. Baker tr. C. Gesner Newe Jewell of Health ii. f. 63v The water druncke in time of traueyle of chylde..sendeth forth the afterburthen.
1653 W. Harvey Anat. Exercitations lxx. 438 In the Womans After-burden, if you mind it well, presently after she is delivered, are many more Arteries then Veines, and also larger too.
1688 London Gaz. 22 Oct. This Deponent took the After-Burthen, and put it into a Bason of Water.
1719 tr. P. Donis Gen. Treat. Midwifery vii. 275 So soon as she perceives that the Bottom of the Womb comes out with the After-Burden, she ought to separate it from it, and put it back into its place.
1756 Thoughts on Being of God 90 Tho' he then delivered the World of the Child of Sin, the After-burthen was left behind.
1846 Northern Jrnl. Med. 4 309 In his book De Morbis Mulieribus he [sc. Hippocrates] says ‘that the after-burthen should come forth after the child, for if it come first, the child cannot live’.
1871 G. Fullerton Family Med. Guide ii. 420 The expulsion of the child's head should not be hastened, because, while it remains in the passage it excites the womb to contract more perfectly, and throw off the placenta or after-burden.
2010 S. Marchant in S. Byrom et al. Essent. Midwifery Pract.: Postnatal Care i. 7 Laying a newly flayed sheep skin over the abdomen to assist in the delivery of the ‘after burden’.
2. A burden that comes later; one that is produced by an event, incident, etc. rare before 19th cent.
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1650 H. Vaughan Silex Scintillans 93 Casting in my heart The after-burthens, and griefs yet to come.
1840 Morning Chron. 11 July 4/6 All borough and county rates are in abeyance and accumulating as an after burthen.
1854 A. M. Maillard Matrimonial Shipwrecks I. xvi. 170 Some one, whose presence, though pleasing, inspires a dread of after burdens on our conscience.
1875 F. S. C. Hoey Blossoming of Aloe i. ix. 33/2 The sight of him, just for one hour,..would have made the after-burden easier to bear.
1913 Homiletic Rev. May 360/2 The horrors and ravages and after-burdens of armed conflict.
2000 C. Bell in A. Schnabel & R. Thakur Kosovo & Challenge of Humanitarian Intervention vii. xxviii. 456 European policy makers..resigned themselves not only to the risks of war but to the inevitable afterburden of the costs of reconstructing the Balkans.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2011; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
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n.?a1450