Emily Dickinson Lexicon

AFT'ER, adv.

Posterior; later in time; as, it was about the space of three hours after. In this sense the word, however, is really a preposition, the object being understood; about three hours after the time or fact before specified. After is prefixed to many words, forming compounds, but retaining its genuine signification. Some of the following words are of this kind, but in some of them after seems rather to be a separate word.