after

The story

1. Proto-Indo-European*h₂ep
2. Proto-Indo-European*h₂epó
3. Proto-Indo-European*h₂ep(o)teros
4. Proto-Germanic*after
5. Old Englishæfter
6. Middle Englishafter
7. English todayafter

From Middle English after, from Old English æfter, from Proto-West Germanic *aftar, from Proto-Germanic *after, *aftiri, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂epoteros (“further behind, further away”), from *h₂epo (“off, away”). Cognate with Scots efter (“after”), North Frisian efter (“after, behind”), West Frisian after, achter, efter (“behind; after”), Low German and Dutch achter (“behind”), German after- (“after-”), Danish and Swedish efter (“after”), Norwegian Bokmål and Norwegian Nynorsk etter (“after”), Faroese and Icelandic eftir (“after”). The Irish usage to indicate recent completion of an activity is a calque of the Irish collocation Táim tar éis... (“I have just...”, literally “I am after...”).