aftersense

A1F4T1E1R1S1E1N1S1E1

noun

A perception that follows an experience; a subsequent sense.

Scrabble 13

Meanings

noun
  1. A perception that follows an experience; a subsequent sense.

    1678, Bartholomew Ashwood, The Heavenly Trade, London: Samuel Lee, p. 309, Peter got good from his fall, by keeping an after-sense of the evil of it on his heart.

    4 more examples

    She privately ached—almost as under a dishonour—with the aftersense of having been inspected in that particular way.

    1878, Henry James, “An International Episode”, in Lady Barbarina, The Siege of London, An International Episode and Other Tales, New York: Scribner, published 1908, page 387

    […] the printed text, made easily available in thousands upon thousands of copies, which at best preserves from its literary antecedents a flickering, intermittent aftersense that what it says ought to be true because it is written in a book.

    1975, Robert Alter, chapter 1, in Partial Magic: The Novel as a Self-Conscious Genre, page 2

    The spiral is set in motion and observed by the patient. When stopped, the normal response is a continued aftersense of motion.

    1985, John W. McGhee, Introductory Statistics, St. Paul: West Publishing Company, Section 4.4, p. 134

    Sarah, who a moment before had been spattered in the face with bone fragments and blood, felt herself grow clean again—though an aftersense of having been touched by such matter remained.

    2007, Toby Litt, Hospital, Penguin, published 2008, page 318

Origin

  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. Englishafter
  8. Old Englishæfter
  9. Old Englishæfter-
  10. Middle Englishafter-
  11. Englishafter-
  12. Proto-Indo-European*sent-
  13. Proto-Italic*sentiō
  14. Latinsentiō
  15. Latinsēnsu
  16. Proto-Germanic*sinnaz
  17. Frankish*sinn
  18. Vulgar Latin*sennus
  19. Old Frenchsens
  20. Middle Englishsense
  21. Englishsense
  22. Englishaftersense

From after- + sense; apparently (re)coined by Henry James in the late 19th century.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

aftersense. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/aftersense

MLA

“aftersense.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/aftersense. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “aftersense,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/aftersense.

Source: aftersense on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.