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Middle English afte "back," going back to Old English æftan "behind, from behind," going back to Germanic *aftana (whence Old Saxon at aftan "last," Middle High German aften "behind, later," Old Norse aptan "from behind, behind," Gothic aftana "from behind"), from *aft- "behind" (probably secondarily from *after- , parsed as aft- + -er-) + -ana "from (a place)" Note: The suffix -(a)na has been traced to a putative Indo-European *-nē (in pre-laryngealist terms), to be found in Sanskrit vinā "without," Latin superne "from above," inferne "from below," Old Church Slavic vŭně "outside." All these compared elements can be given other explanations, however, and the origin of the suffix is not clear. (责任编辑：) |