posteaquam

Forms

posteāquam (not comparable)^[1] It is also written separately, posteā quam.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is formed from posteā (“afterwards”) and quam (“than, as”).^[2][1][4] ⟨posteā⟩ is post (“after”) with ea, and de Vaan derives ⟨post⟩ from Proto-Italic *posti (“behind, after”) and Proto-Indo-European *pos(ti) (“after”), cognate with Oscan púst (“after”) and Umbrian post (“after”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler gives Varro as its first author;^[4] the Capitoline Fasti record that Quintus Petillius was killed after his colleague had been elected.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It is a conjunction of time, after, with the perfect indicative and also the pluperfect.^[2] It is also from the time that, ever since, as Cicero's “since I was freed from the great worry of canvassing, I have thought of nothing but the trial”.^[2] The TLL notes that some authors, such as Vitruvius and Celsus, use only the joined form.^[3]

Church Latin glosses it “after”.^[6]

Timeline

• 116–27 BC – Varro.^[4]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero in the sense “ever since”.^[2][4]
• c. 84–c. 25 BC – Vitruvius.^[3][4]

Meanings

Conjunction

1. After.^[2][1][6]
2. From the time that, ever since.^[2]

Related words

• posteā
• post
• postquam
• antequam

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson