Chrysti the Wordsmith > Radio Scripts

Every word has a secret life hiding behind its dictionary definition. Aftermath has a particularly intriguing history; one that takes us to the fragrant hay meadows of ancient Britian.

Aftermath means consequences, results, after-effects. The math in this term has nothing to do with numbers. It comes from the 15th century Old English term maeth, which meant "a mowing." An aftermath etymologically refers to the cutting of a second hay crop following the harvest of the first and best growth.

By the mid 17th century, the word was used figuratively to mean "resulting condition" or "that which follows an event." It often bears the negative connotations implied in the expressions "aftermath of battle", or "aftermath of a hurricane." Warfare and storm suggest a "cutting down" of life and property, just as aftermath is a cutting of hay.

The harvest and preservation of dried grass for livestock has always been an important activity. Hay-reapers of earlier centuries were so valued that they acquired the occupational surname Mather (from the Old English maeth), and its variants Mathur and Meder. Harvard president Increase Mather (1639-1723) and the minister Cotton Mather (1663-1728) were descendants of earlier European hay-harvesters.

Radio Script > Aftermath / Mather