late
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: ipa: /leɪt/
rhymes: -eɪt
Forms: form: later
form: latest
Etymology: From Middle English late, lat, from Old English læt (“slow; slack, lax, negligent; late”), from Proto-West Germanic *lat, from Proto-Germanic *lataz (“slow, lazy”). By surface analysis, deverbal from let.
Cognates
Cognate with Yola laate (“late”), North Frisian leed, leet, lääs (“late”), Saterland Frisian leet (“late”), Dutch, German Low German laat (“late, tardy”), Danish lad (“languid, lazy, indolent”), Faroese, Icelandic latur (“lazy”), Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk and Swedish lat (“lazy”), Gothic 𐌻𐌰𐍄𐍃 (lats, “lazy, slothful”).
Senses: examples: text: The seedlings appeared to be coming along nicely until a late frost killed them.
glosses: Near the end of a period of time.
examples: text: It was getting late and I was tired.
glosses: Specifically, near the end of the day.
examples: text: Late Latin is less fully inflected than classical Latin.
glosses: Associated with the end of a period.
examples: text: The flowers were late in blooming because of the prolonged cold weather.
text: Panos was so late that he arrived at the meeting after Antonio, who had the excuse of being in hospital for most of the night.
text: The heavy snow made all the trains late.
glosses: Not arriving or occurring until after an expected time.
examples: text: The power company suspended late fees during the pandemic.
glosses: Levied as a surcharge on a payment which has not arrived by a specified deadline.
examples: text: I'm late, honey. Could you buy a test?
text: I am very worried. I am never late.
ref: 1992 February 5, Larry Charles, Elaine Pope, “The Fix-Up”, in Seinfeld, spoken by Cynthia (Maggie Wheeler):
glosses: Not having had an expected menstrual period.
examples: text: Her late husband had left her well provided for.
text: Mary was entitled to the crown by her late father’s testament.
text: To Edward […] he was terrible, nerve-inflaming, poisonously asphyxiating. He sat rocking himself in the late Mr. Churchill's swing chair, smoking and twaddling.
ref: 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XXIII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC, page 181:
text: This parrot is no more! It has ceased to be! It's expired and gone to meet its maker! This is a late parrot! It's a stiff! Bereft of life, it rests in peace! If you hadn't nailed it to the perch it would be pushing up the daisies!
ref: 1969 December 7, Monty Python, “Full Frontal Nudity, Dead Parrot sketch”, in Monty Python's Flying Circus, spoken by Mr Praline (John Cleese):
text: Mark’s late wife, Gemma, was an educator as well. Russian literature.
ref: 2022 February 18, Dan Erickson, “Good News About Hell”, in Severance, season 1, episode 1, spoken by Ricken (Michael Chernus):
text: “He is not my ‘late husband’. He is my husband,” she said, before discussing how the couple had managed to retain their independent identities while together.
ref: 2022 December 14, Nadia Khomami, quoting Iman, “‘He’s not my “late” husband’: Iman speaks of grief over death of David Bowie”, in The Guardian:
glosses: Deceased, dead: used particularly when speaking of the dead person's actions while alive. (Generally must be preceded by a possessive or an article, commonly "the"; see usage notes. Can itself only precede the person's name, never follow it.)
examples: text: the late bishop of London
text: the late administration
text: By Edvvard Reynoldes, late Preacher to the Honorable Society of Lincoln’s Inne: And now Rector of the Church of Braunſton in Northamptonſhire.
ref: 1640, Edvvard Reynoldes, A Treatise of the Passions and Facvlties of the Soul of Man. With the severall Dignities and Corruptions thereunto belonging., London: […] R. H. for Robert Bostock, […]:
glosses: Existing or holding some position not long ago, but not now; departed, or gone out of office.
examples: text: OLd Iohn of Gaunt, time-honoured Lancaſter,
Haſt thou according to thy oath and band
Brought hither Henry Herford thy bold ſon:
Heere to make good yͤ boiſtrous late appeale,
Which then our leyſure would not let vs heare,
Againſt the Duke of Norfolke, Thomas Mowbray?
ref: 1595 December 9 (first known performance), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Richard the Second”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i], page 23, column 1:
text: Lancaster bore him—such a little town, / Such a great man. It doesn't see him often / Of late years, though he keeps the old homestead / And sends the children down there with their mother[…]
ref: 1914, Robert Frost, “A Hundred Collars”, in North of Boston:
glosses: Recent — relative to the noun it modifies.
topics: astronomy
natural-sciences
glosses: Of a star or class of stars, cooler than the sun.
Synonyms: word: late
Hyponyms: word: final
Related terms: word: overdue