Q: Have you ever looked into “after” in the context of “What y’after?” I can’t see any relationship between the “behind” and the “pursuing” meanings of the word.
A: Both of those meanings of “after” (“behind” and “in pursuit of”) are very old and date back to Anglo-Saxon days.
The Oxford English Dictionary defines the first sense as “behind something in place or position; in the rear; further back.” It cites an account of the Revolt of the Earls, the last serious act of resistance against William I and the Norman Conquest.
In this passage from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle for the year 1076, Ralph de Gael, one of the earls, has fled his castle to find reinforcements while his wife, Emma, stays behind (æfter in Old English) to defend it:
“Rawulf … wæs fægen þæt he to scypum ætfleah, & his wif belaf æfter in þam castele” (“Ralph … was glad that he escaped to the ships, and his wife remained after in the castle”).
Emma ultimately negotiated terms under which she and her husband lost their lands, but she and her followers were allowed to escape.
The OED defines the pursuing sense of “after” as “in pursuit of, following with the intent to catch (a person or thing in motion); in the direction of.”
This Old English example is from the Benedictine Abbot Ælfric of Eynsham’s Catholic Homilies, written in the late 10th century:
“Pharao bæt he bæt folc swa freolice forlet, and tengde æfter mid eallum his here, and offerde hí æt dære Readan sæ” (“Pharaoh with all his army pressed after the people [the Israelites] that he so freely let go and overtook them at the Red Sea”).
Those two senses of “after” aren’t as different as you think. Both refer to being behind, but one is trying to catch up to or obtain what’s ahead.
The word “after” has developed many other meanings over the years—as an adverb, adjective, conjunction, and preposition—but those two Old English senses are alive and well in modern English, as you’ve noticed.
You can find both in contemporary dictionaries. American Heritage has this example for the preposition used in the “behind” sense: “Z comes after Y in the alphabet,” and these examples for it used in the “pursuing” sense: “seek after fame; go after big money.”
Help support the Grammarphobia Blog with your donation. And check out our books about the English language and more.