From after- + math (“a mowing”), from Old English mæþ (“a mowing”), from Proto-Germanic *madą, *maþō, *maþwō, *mēdō (“a mowing”), from Proto-Indo-European *(a)mē- (“to mow”). Cognate with Dutch made, mad (“area of ground cleared by a sickle”), German Mahd (“mowing”). Related to Old English māwan (“to mow”). See mow, meadow.
aftermath (plural aftermaths)
- (obsolete), or farmers' jargon: A second mowing; the grass which grows after the first crop of hay in the same season.
- Hence; that which happens after, that which follows. Has a 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.