ex post factoadv.adj.
/ɛks pəʊst ˈfaktəʊ/ A. adv.
From an after act or deed; = ‘after the fact’.
ΘΚΠ
the world > time > relative time > the future or time to come > [adverb] > after, afterwards, or later > after the event or after the fact
upon the postfact1631
ex post facto1632
post factum1649
post facto1650
post hoc1844
post eventum1846
après coup1871
post festum1887
1632 Reply to Remonstrance of Netherlands E. India Co. in Justification of Proc. at Amboyna (E. India Co.) 11 For first for the notoriousnesse of the pretended conspiracie; although now ex post facto, they cry it out for notorious.
1649 Bp. J. Hall Resol. & Decisions i. x. 89 To buy those goods which you know..to be stoln..for what doe you else herein, but ex-post-facto partake with that theefe, who stole them.
1679 J. Goodman Penitent Pardoned i. iii. 77 Whatsoever sin..is not repented of when it is come to our knowledge, is by that means become a voluntary transgression, increasing its guilt ex post facto.
1835 Tomlins's Law-dict. (ed. 4) (at cited word) An act done..may be made good by matter ex post facto, that was not so at first.
1966 Listener 10 Nov. 705/2 A piano suite by Cornelius Cardew eccentrically titled (one supposes ex postfacto) Three Winter Potatoes.
B. adj.
Done after another thing, and operating retrospectively, esp. in ex post facto law.
ΘΚΠ
the world > time > relative time > the past > [adjective] > operating retrospectively
retroactive1611
retrospect1709
ex post facto1789
1789 J. Bentham Introd. Princ. Morals & Legisl. xv. §3 Cases in which punishment must be inefficacious..Such are the cases of an ex-post facto law.
a1811 R. Cumberland tr. Aristophanes Clouds in T. Mitchell tr. Aristophanes Comedies (1822) II. 148 May not I Take up the cause of youth..Remitting and consigning to oblivion All ex post facto beating?
1823 J. Lingard Hist. Eng. VI. 486 By an ex post facto law, those who had taken the first oath against the papal authority, were reputed to have taken..a second and much more comprehensive oath, which was afterwards enacted.
1852 J. R. McCulloch Treat. Taxation (ed. 2) ii. vi. 279 They might have objected to the tax had it been ex post facto.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1894; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
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adv.adj.1632