posthumous
[pos-chuh-muh s, -choo-]
- arising, occurring, or continuing after one's death: a posthumous award for bravery.
- published after the death of the author: a posthumous novel.
- born after the death of the father.
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Origin of posthumous
1600–10; < Latin postumus last-born, born after the death of the father (in form a superlative of posterus; see posterior); post-classical spelling with h by association with humus ground, earth, as if referring to burial
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for posthumous
Contemporary Examples
Induction would be a fitting gesture, even now when the honor would be posthumous.
Last year, his widow and his brother pulled 150 of them for posthumous publication, with a plan to release eight to 10 per year.
Last July in Moscow, Magnitsky was given a posthumous punishment for his effrontery by being put on trial for tax evasion.
He scored the posthumous Screen Actors Guild nomination, which I think could push him into the Oscars final five.
2014 Oscar Predictions: Who Will and Who Should Be NominatedMarlow Stern, Kevin Fallon
January 15, 2014
Until this point, author images were generally reserved for religious pamphlets and posthumous poetry collections.
Historical Examples
Sir William Blackstone was the posthumous son of a silk-mercer.
Self-HelpSamuel Smiles
It is virtue gone to seed: it is a kind of posthumous honor.
Essays, Second SeriesRalph Waldo Emerson
An Irish student was once asked what was meant by posthumous works.
Then followed the Habsburgs, Albert and his posthumous son Ladislas.
From a Terrace in PragueLieut.-Col. B. Granville Baker
It professed to be the posthumous work of Mirabaud, who had been secretary to the Academy.
Diderot and the EncyclopdistsJohn Morley
posthumous
- happening or continuing after one's death
- (of a book, etc) published after the author's death
- (of a child) born after the father's death
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Word Origin
C17: from Latin postumus the last, but modified as though from Latin post after + humus earth, that is, after the burial
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for posthumous
adj.
mid-15c., "born after the death of the originator" (author or father), from Late Latin posthumus, from Latin postumus "last, last-born," superlative of posterus "coming after, subsequent" (see posterior). Altered in Late Latin by association with Latin humare "to bury," suggesting death; the one born after the father's death obviously being the last. An Old English word for this was æfterboren, literally "after-born." Related: Posthumously.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper