aftermath

From after- +‎ math (“a mowing”), from Old English mæþ (“a mowing”), from Proto-Germanic *madą, *maþō, *maþwō, *mēdō (“a mowing”), from Proto-Indo-European *(a)mē- (“to mow”). Cognate with Dutch made, mad (“area of ground cleared by a sickle”), German Mahd (“mowing”). Related to Old English māwan (“to mow”). See mow, meadow.

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈæf.tɚˌmæθ/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈɑːf.təˌmɑːθ/

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aftermath (plural aftermaths)

1. (obsolete, agriculture) A second mowing; the grass which grows after the first crop of hay in the same season.
   • 1879, Robert Louis Stevenson: Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes:

     They were cutting aftermath on all sides, which gave the neighbourhood, this gusty autumn morning, an untimely smell of hay.

2. That which happens after, that which follows. Has a strongly negative connotation in most contexts, implying a preceding catastrophe.

   In contrast to most projections of the aftermath of nuclear war, in this there is no rioting or looting.

• beforemath

• hamfatter