después

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish depues (“after, afterwards”) in an altered form, and that is inherited from Vulgar Latin dē post (“after; behind”).^[2][3][1] The older form is found from the 11th to the 13th century, in Berceo among others, and depost is already recorded in the Latin of Africa.^[2][3][4] Corominas and Wiktionary explain the ⟨s⟩ as an analogy: the old form took it from desde and desque (“since”), which overlapped with it in many uses.^[2][3][1]

The Academy, Moliner and Alemany instead analyse the word as Latin de, ex (“from”) and post (“after”).^[5][6][7] Corominas doubts that such a combination existed in Vulgar Latin.^[2] In 1726 the Academy had already rejected Covarrubias's derivation from Italian dipoi and proposed the Latin adverb with a prefix ⟨des⟩.^[8]

The Latin phrase without the middle element gave Portuguese depois, Occitan depueis, French depuis and Italian dopo.^[2] Forms with ⟨des-⟩ are rare or in the minority in the other Romance languages, for example Old Catalan despuix.^[2] The Asturian form is dempués.^[2][9] The simple pues continues the Latin adverb alone.^[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, known from a 14th-century copy) already has the word: the moneylenders tell Martín Antolínez that the market does not work that way, „sinon primero prendiendo e después dando” “but first taking and afterwards giving”.^[10][11] There it is an adverb of time, and the Cid also has después de and después que.^[11]

Semantic evolution

In the 13th century depues and despues were still used side by side: the Fazienda de Ultra Mar and the Razón de amor have depues, the Cortes of León of 1208 despues.^[10] Después became frequent from the end of the 13th century.^[2] The DEMel records despues, depues, de pues, despoys and despos among the medieval spellings.^[12] In the Americas the form dempués appears in documents from Puerto Rico from 1509 on.^[13]

Autoridades (1726–1739) defines the word as an adverb of later time or place, and notes its use as an adjective meaning “following”, as in el año después.^[8] The Academy's dictionary of 1884 adds the sense of lower rank or preference.^[14] The DLE still lists the adjectival use, and an old use with the sense of desde “since”.^[5]

Timeline

• 1035 and 1055 – the form depos or depost appears in documents.^[2]
• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid uses después with the sense “afterwards”.^[10][2]
• c. 1200 – the Fazienda de Ultra Mar still writes depues.^[10]
• 1208 – despues que “after” in the Cortes of León, the first record in a text preserved in its original.^[10]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario uses despues for later time.^[15]
• 1509 – the form dempués in letters from Puerto Rico.^[13]
• 1726–1739 – Autoridades records the proverb Buenas son mangas después de Pascua: something useful is welcome even when it comes late.^[8]
• 1884 – the Academy defines it as an adverb of time, place and order.^[14]

Meanings

Adverb

1. Behind, next in place: La firma va después del texto.^[5][1]
2. later, afterwards: Hablamos después.^[5][1]
3. (with de) After, coming lower in order, rank or preference.^[5]
4. (obsolete) Since (with the sense of desde).^[5]

Adjective

1. Following, next: al día después.^[5][8]

Word family

• despuesito

Related words

• pues
• Old Spanish depues
• Portuguese depois
• French depuis

Usage notes

Después de is used before nouns and infinitives and después de que or después que before clauses.^[5][1] The phrase después de los despueses means “after all that has been said or has happened”.^[5]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 683
3. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. pues
4. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. después
6. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. después
7. ^ Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 574
8. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. s.v. después
9. ^ Academia de la Llingua Asturiana (2000), Diccionariu de la Llingua Asturiana, Uviéu: ALLA; online at https://mas.academiadelallingua.com/diccionariu, p. s.v. dempués
10. ^ a b c d e Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. después
11. ^ a b Menéndez Pidal, Ramón (1908–1911), Cantar de Mio Cid: texto, gramática y vocabulario, 3 vols., Madrid: Bailly-Baillière, p. s.v. después
12. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. después
13. ^ a b Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. dempués
14. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 375
15. ^ Kasten, Lloyd A.; Nitti, John J.; Gago Jover, Francisco (2002–), Diccionario de la prosa castellana del Rey Alfonso X, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (electronic edition 2024), p. s.v. después