Where does “posterity” come from?
Posterity comes from Middle French posterité, from Latin posteritas meaning "future generations," derived from posterus meaning "coming after," ultimately from Proto-Indo-European pós meaning "after."
posterity (English): All the future generations, especially the...
Definitions
- All the future generations, especially the...
Ancestry of “posterity”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Middle French | posterité | offspring; descendants; posterity |
| 2 | Latin | posteritas | future time; posterity; offspring |
| 3 | Latin | posterus | following, next, coming after; inferior |
| 4 | Latin | post | behind; after, since, besides, except; behind,... |
| 5 | Latin | poste | ablative singular of postis |
| 6 | Proto-Italic | posti | behind, after |
| 7 | Proto-Indo-European | pósti | after |
| 8 | Proto-Indo-European | pós | afterwards, post; by, at |