the.com/hereafter
The afterlife's vaguest promise, used by the religious and the legally cautious alike.
means From this point onward — whether that point is the next paragraph of a document or the far side of death itself.
from A plain compound of 'here' and 'after,' stitched together in Old English and Middle English simply to mean 'after this point.' No myth hides inside it — it earned its two careers (legal boilerplate and theological hope) the honest way, through centuries of use, not etymology.
- legal use
- contracts use it to mean from this point onward
- theological use
- means whatever comes after death, unspecified on purpose
- etymology
- literally just here plus after, no mysticism required
- movie title
- 2010 Clint Eastwood film about near-death experiences