aftersense means A perception that follows an experience; a subsequent sense.
Why “aftersense” is a great word
A perception or feeling that follows and is a direct consequence of an initial experience. A compound of the English words 'after' and 'sense', likely coined by Henry James in the late 19th or early 20th century. Unlike “aftertaste” (which clings as a strictly sensory, often gustatory, remnant) or “recollection” (which demands the active, deliberate work of memory), an aftersense is the involuntary emotional echo of an event. It is the phantom warmth on your cheek from a kiss now hours gone, the scent of rain on dry earth long after the storm has passed, or the lingering taste of metal in the mouth not from food but from fear. It is experience's echo, not its record; the ghost of an experience, lingering just long enough to prove it was real.
noun
- A perception that follows an experience; a subsequent sense.“1678, Bartholomew Ashwood, The Heavenly Trade, London: Samuel Lee, p. 309,
Peter got good from his fall, by keeping an after-sense of the evil of it on his heart.”
Words closest in meaning
By meaning, not spelling — each word's AI semantic fingerprint, nearest first.