Spread laughter and positive energy with wordplay! Dictomancy - Everyday Wordplay is a Wednesday blog series that features rare, bizarre, and absurd words and their meanings. Work one of these words into your day and spark some laughter and curiosity!
Afterclap - af*ter*clap n 1 An unexpected subsequent stroke or event; a surprising (and esp disagreeable) sequel. old-fash 1654 (1974) Johnson Wonder-Working 139, But let N. England beware of an after-clap, & provoke the Lord no longer. 1953 AmSp 28.247 csPA, ‘Make sure there won’t be any afterclap.’ 2 An unjust or additional demand beyond the terms of a bargain or agreement. obs 1840 (1847) Longstreet GA Scenes 29, I’m a man that, when he makes a bad trade, makes the most of it until he can make a better. I’m for no rues and after-claps. 3 See quot. [Transf from afterclap 1; see also EDD after-cleckin, -clep, -cleth under after 9, a second brood of chickens] (as of c1900), Afterclap-- A child born long after its brothers and sisters.
“I wouldn’t take a villain seriously if she said to beware of her afterclap.”
“You should have expected him to alter the deal. Now you gotta deal with the afterclap.”
“Most businesses don’t renege on a sale because the afterclap would be crazy.”
Please share and comment on today’s Dictomancy and feel free to post your uses for the words in a positive, lighthearted way. Audience participation makes Everyday Wordplay hilarious!
Works Cited
Cassidy, Frederic G. Chief Editor. Dictionary Of American Regional English. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1985. Print