posthumous
/ˈpɒstjʊməs
/adjective
1Occurring, awarded, or appearing after the death of the originator: he was awarded a posthumous Military Cross a posthumous collection of his articles...
- ‘I feel that a posthumous award of some kind would be most appropriate, although I am not sure that one exists,’ he said.
- He did award posthumous medals of honor to the families of several soldiers on 22 April 1971 and on several other occasions.
- She was a genius and deserves a posthumous award of some kind.
1.1(Of a child) born after the death of its father: Newton was the posthumous son of an illiterate yeoman...
- She was born in 1888, a posthumous child, her father dying young.
- Parliamentarians were concerned about inheritance rights in instances where a dead man's estate or property is dispersed before a posthumous child is born.
- She bought a house and Elric was born, and passed off as a posthumous child.
Origin
Early 17th century: from Latin postumus 'last' (superlative from post 'after'), in late Latin spelled posth- by association with humus 'ground'.
In English posthumous means ‘happening after a person's death’. Latin postumus, on which it is based, meant ‘last’. A baby born posthumously (the most common use of the word), after the death of its father, would be the father's last child. The h was added to the spelling of the English word because of the influence of humus ‘ground, earth’, or humare ‘to bury’, both words that relate to the idea of death. The French near relative of postumus was puisne, formed from puis ‘afterwards’ and né ‘born’. This originally meant a younger person, and is the source of our puny (mid 16th century).