posteriorn.adj.adv.

Etymology: As noun < classical Latin posterior person who lived later (Cicero), descendant (2nd cent. a.d.), posterius (neuter) something that comes after, hinder part of the body (usually in plural, posteriora), uses as noun of masculine and neuter of posterior (see below); as adjective < classical Latin posterior later, subsequent, situated at the back < posterus later, next (see postero- comb. form) + -ior -ior suffix².Compare Middle French, French postérieur , †posterieur (in Middle French also posterior (1491, rare) (adjective) later, subsequent, situated behind something else, situated at the back (all late 15th cent. in Middle French), (noun) descendant (1548, 1576 in two apparently isolated instances in Middle French, as postérieurs (plural); now obsolete), (colloquial) buttocks, behind (1566 in Middle French in singular in an isolated attestation; subsequently from 1798 in plural), Catalan posterior (15th cent. as adjective), Spanish posterior (first half of the 15th cent. or earlier as adjective; mid 15th cent. or earlier as plural noun los posteriores in sense A. 1; beginning of the 17th cent. or earlier as plural noun los posteriores in sense A. 3a in humorous context (rare)), Portuguese posterior (second half of the 16th cent. as adjective), Italian posteriore (first half of the 14th cent. as adjective; c1350 as noun in sense A. 3a).