retrospect

What it means

1. Consideration of past times.

   Whether, like Colin, in retrospect Willie Lee and Baptist would feel that what has vanished was greater than what was achieved, is not something we can predict.

   1976, Terry Kay, The Year the Lights Came On, University of Georgia Press, published 1989, →ISBN, page 298

   1 more example

   My mind, calmer and stronger now than last night, made for itself some imperious rules, prohibiting under deadly penalties all weak retrospect of happiness past; commanding a patient journeying through the wilderness of the present...

   1853, Charlotte Bronte, Villette

   Antonyms: prospect

In a sentence

My mind, calmer and stronger now than last night, made for itself some imperious rules, prohibiting under deadly penalties all weak retrospect of happiness past; commanding a patient journeying through the wilderness of the present...

1853, Charlotte Bronte, Villette

Where it comes from

1. Latinretrōspectum
2. Englishretrospect

Borrowed from Latin retrōspectum, from retrōspicio (“to look back at”), equivalent to retro- + -spect. Compare review.