posthac

Forms

posthāc (not comparable)^[1]

Etymology

It is a compound of post (“after”) and hāc, the feminine ablative of hic (“this”).^[2][1][3] De Vaan traces ⟨post⟩ to Proto-Italic *posti (“behind, after”) and Proto-Indo-European *pos(ti) (“after”), with Oscan púst (“after”) and Umbrian pus (“after”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler gives Plautus as its first author.^[3] In the Menaechmi a courtesan tells Menaechmus “find another one from now on” (aliam posthāc invenītō).^[5]

Semantic evolution

It is “from now on, henceforth”, in comedy (Plautus, Terence), in the Senatus consultum de Bacchanalibus and in Cicero.^[5] Looking back on the past it also means “from then on, thereafter”, as in Cicero's Pro Murena and in Tacitus.^[2]

Church Latin glosses it “after this time, hereafter, afterwards”.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of the future.^[5][3]
• 190–159 BC – Terence.^[5][3]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of “thereafter”.^[2][3]

Meanings

Adverb

1. After this time, henceforth, hereafter.^[2][1][5]
2. From then on, thereafter.^[2][1]

Related words

• post
• hic
• anteā

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
4. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson