aftermath

 

From after- +‎ math (“a mowing”).

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈæf.tɚˌmæθ/
• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈɑːf.təˌmɑːθ/, /ˈæf.təˌmæθ/

• Audio (US):

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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, usually of 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

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