posterity
[po-ster-i-tee]
- succeeding or future generations collectively: Judgment of this age must be left to posterity.
- all descendants of one person: His fortune was gradually dissipated by his posterity.
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Origin of posterity
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for posterity
Contemporary Examples
Obtaining this understanding and posterity is easy, according to the website.
As he once told Brassai, the Gagosian exhibition catalog states, “I want to leave as complete a record as possible for posterity.”
Her face was cast into a plaster mold, preserving her shy smile for posterity.
Brooklyn’s Museum of Death: Inside Morbid Anatomy’s House of Intriguing HorrorsNina Strochlic
July 10, 2014
And our victory in that war decided not just a century, but shaped the security and well-being of all posterity.
If not for posterity, if not for the defense of the United States Constitution, then do it for Mickey.
Historical Examples
Here the posterity of your Mynherr Knickerbocker do likewise.
The SpendersHarry Leon Wilson
A great debt has been contracted in securing to us and our posterity the Union.
He is the representative of Posterity,—the man of an age to come.
A Select Party (From "Mosses From An Old Manse")Nathaniel Hawthorne
He enjoys not a little--it has been often said--of the position of posterity.
De Libris: Prose and VerseAustin Dobson
His own public had unjustly neglected him, posterity consigned his operas to oblivion.
HandelEdward J. Dent
posterity
- future or succeeding generations
- all of one's descendants
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Word Origin
C14: from French postérité, from Latin posteritās future generations, from posterus coming after, from post after
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for posterity
n.
late 14c., from Old French posterité (14c.), from Latin posteritatem (nominative posteritas) "future, future time; after-generation, offspring;" literally "the condition of coming after," from posterus "coming after, subsequent," from post "after" (see post-). Old English words for this included æftercneoreso, framcynn.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper