When I think of the word aftermath I think of some kind of destruction left by a storm.

I see that I’m not alone.  I popped aftermath into the search field of the New York Times and two of the first three hits were to do with the mess left by typhoons and cyclones.

But looking at the dictionaries I see that this is really a metaphorical meaning to aftermath.

To find the original meaning we have to break the word it two.

The after part is just what we’d expect but math is quite a different word than the one we use for the subject we studied in school.  The more familiar math is a contraction of mathematics and didn’t arise until about 150 years ago.

The older word math dates back to Old English.  The older math meant “mow” as you would do to your lawn.  But back then mowing was an agricultural practice and more important than just keeping your yard looking neat and tidy.  Mowing fields back then and earlier meant you were setting aside food for your cattle for the coming winter.

The idea was important enough that the root of both this old math and the word mow too, go back to an Indo-European root me according to the American Heritage Dictionary.

Not only was it a good idea to mow your fields to store cattle food for winter, but by mowing the field you stimulated new growth, and that new growth was young and tender and particularly yummy for the cows.

Since math was mowing the field, aftermath was the new growth that sprung up.

So when aftermath put in its first appearance in writing in 1523 it was a good thing.

But what is English but a series of metaphors and word contractions.  By 100 years after that first appearance of aftermath as a welcome second growth, people began using the word figuratively to mean the consequences that grow out of certain actions or events.  So the aftermath of an attack might be a counter-attack.

Right away the sense of aftermath was usually negative, as are the messes left by cyclones.  We have no idea why this word was positive or neutral in its literal sense, but negative as a metaphor.

This episode brought to you by my book on the words we use for our bodies: Carnal Knowledge – A Navel Gazer’s Dictionary of Anatomy, Etymology, and Trivia available at bookstores or online.  For more information please visit www.navelgazersdictionary.com