a. (adv.) Forms: 1 lator (adv.), latera, lætra (adj.), 2 leter (adv.), 3 lattre, 3–4 latere, 4–5 lattere, latir, -yr, (Sc. 5 lattire, 5–6 letter, 6 -yr, 6–7 -er, 7 ? leater), 3–6 later (and 6–7 in sense 5), 3– latter. [OE. lætra (fem. and neut. -e) adj., lator adv., compar. of læt LATE; cf. OFris. letora, lettera latter, Du. later later, MHG. laȥȥer later, ON. latare more sluggish.
The mod. LATER is a new-formation on the positive; it is difficult to determine how far it goes back, as the spelling later may have represented the form with short vowel even as recently as the 17th c.; in sense 5 later is here treated as a spelling of latter in the more recent as well as in the earlier examples.]
A. adj.
† 1. Slower. OE. and early ME.
c. 1000. Laws Eccles. Instit., § 3, in Thorpe, Anc. Laws, II. 404. Þæt he þy lætra bið to uncystum.
c. 1000. Ælfric, Exod. iv. 10 (Gr.). Siððan þu spræce to þinum þeowe, ic hæfde þe lætran tungan.
c. 1205. Lay., 5911. Weoren heo of Rome alle ridinde, þa oðre a foten … and slowen alle here hors; here hæp wes þe lættere.
2. Belonging to a subsequent or comparatively advanced period; later. Sometimes contextually = ‘second’ (cf. LATTERMATH). Now only poet. or arch. with reference to periods of the year and their productions.
c. 1200. Ormin, 15409. Þin forrme win iss swiþe god, Þin lattre win iss bettre. Ibid., 19984. Att Cristess lattre come.
c. 1230. Hali Meid., 7. Hire latere were is lasse wurð & lesse haueð þen hauede ear hire earre.
1596. Dalrymple, trans. Leslie’s Hist. Scot., I. 4. The lattir historiographors [called us] Albians, and the Realme Albanie. Ibid., 86. In thir lattir dayes … is sa brocht to passe, that in the people is gretter constancie.
1611. Bible, Transl. Pref., 3. We forbeare to descend to latter Fathers. Ibid., Joel ii. 23. He will cause to come downe for you the raine, the former raine, and the latter raine in the first month.
1624. Quarles, Job, xv. 19. My kindly words were welcome as a latter Raine.
1649. Milton, Eikon., 136. Former with latter steps in the progress of well doing need not reconcilement.
1662. Stillingfl., Orig. Sacr., III. ii. § 7. The latter Platonists.
1708. Swift, Sentim. Ch. Eng. Man, Wks. 1755, II. I. 54. The opinion and practice of the latter Cato.
1727. Bradley, Fam. Dict., Eddish,… the latter Pasture or Grass that comes after Mowing or Reaping.
1801. Strutt, Sports & Past., I. i. 7. These pursuits are said by latter writers to have been [etc.].
1850. Tennyson, In Mem., l. Be near me when my faith is dry, And men the flies of latter spring.
1863. Cowden Clarke, Shaks. Char., xv. 373. Gaunt suddenly fell away from him, like the latter snow.
1864. Swinburne, Atalanta, 1397. Pale as grass, or latter flowers.
b. † Latter-lady (in harvest), the Feast of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary (cf. LADY sb. 3 b). † Latter Mary day (Saint Marie day the latter, etc.), one of the later feasts of the Virgin Mary, as the Nativity, Sept. 8, or the Assumption, Aug. 15. † Latter meat (Sc.), ‘victuals brought from the master’s to the servant’s table’ (Jam.). Latter Lammas: see LAMMAS.
11[?]. O. E. Chron., an. 1052 (MS. D.). Þis wæs ʓedon .vii. nihton ær þære lateran sancta Maria mæssan.
1297. R. Glouc. (Rolls), 7843. Þe morwe after seinte mari day þe later [v.r. latter] ded he was.
15[?]. Aberd. Reg., XV. 617 (Jam.). At the assumptioune of our Lady callit the letter Mareday. Ibid. (1541), XVII. (Jam.). The nativite of our Lady callit the Lettir mareday nixt to cum.
1641. Best, Farm. Bks. (Surtees), 11. Tuppes beinge fedde are to bee kept noe longer then Latter-lady in harvest.
1660. J. Lamont, Diary (Maitland Club), 124. Johne Paterson, meason in Auchtermouchtie, strake throw new doores in the leater meate roume.
1721. Ramsay, Elegy on Patie Birnie, xv. Ane’s thrawart porter wadna let Him in while latter meat was hett.
3. Pertaining to the end of life, of a period, a temporal sequence, the world; = LAST. Obs. exc. arch. in latter days.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, II. v. 93. We fey peple … Quham till this was the dulefull lettir day. Ibid., VIII. ix. 94. At lattyr poynt [L. digressu supremo] quhen thai war to depart.
1530. Proper Dyaloge (Arb.), 129. Your fraudes, almoste at the latter cast.
1535. Coverdale, Jer. xxiii. 20. In the latter dayes ye shall knowe his meanynge.
a. 1547. Surrey, Æneid, II. 414. The later day and fate of Troy is come.
1588. A. King, trans. Canisius’ Catech., I iiij. On ye letter day of december. Ibid., 15. In the letter day of iudgment.
1594. Marlowe & Nashe, Dido, II. C 1 b. At whose latter gaspe Ioues marble statue gan to bend the brow.
1597. Hooker, Eccl. Pol., V. lvi. § 9. That life which shall make them glorious at the later day.
1609. Skene, Reg. Maj., 35. She may make na disposition in her letter will, anent her husbands gudes and geir.
a. 1649. Drumm. of Hawth., Hist. Jas. V., Wks. (1711), 114. The cardinal put in his hands some blank papers, of which they composed a latter-will.
1816. T. Jefferson, Writ. (1830), IV. 296. All the latter years of aged men are overshadowed with its gloom.
1883. R. W. Dixon, Mano, I. iv. 11. This sign moreover doth St. John transmit, That in the latter days we shall be tricked By Satan’s legates.
b. Latter end: the concluding part (of a period, etc.); the end of life, (one’s) death. Also punningly, the posteriors.
c. 1290. S. Eng. Leg., I. 256/33. In þe latere ende of Jeneuer.
a. 1400–50. Alexander, 3891. Him limpis all þe loose be þe lattire end.
c. 1420. Chron. Vilod., 2219. In þe laterhende of þe office.
1422. trans. Secreta Secret., Priv. Priv., 135. He that hit wil not desyre, he shall atte the latyr ende be shente.
a. 1548. Hall, Chron., Hen. VIII., 243 b. In ye latter ende of this moneth.
1568. Grafton, Chron., II. 292. From the later ende of Marche untill the later ende of July.
1630. Prynne, Anti-Armin., 122. What is the chiefe grounde … of most mens delaying their amendment to their latter ends.
1697. Dampier, Voy., 351. About the latter end of August.
1710. Palmer, Proverbs, 247. Death … shou’d never be spoken of in jest: for a man may play with almost any thing safer than his latter-end.
1845. M. Pattison, Ess. (1889), I. 17. At the latter end of the spring of 577.
1852. R. Coombes, in Aquatic Notes Cambridge, 104. Throw the body forward with a spring, as if your latter end was made of Indian-rubber.
1893. G. E. Matheson, About Holland, 10. The latter end of the Rhine is not so romantic … as its earlier career in Germany.
† 4. Sc. Hinder, hindmost. Obs.
1533. Bellenden, Livy, II. (1822), 199. The Volschis … followit feirsly on the latter skirtis of thair armye.
5. That has been mentioned second of two: opposed to former.
1555. in Strype, Eccl. Mem., III. App. xliv. 126. This latter sort … are more hated in the sight of God than the other.
1632. Sanderson, Serm., 58. Of the later sort are such outward actions [etc.].
1755. Johnson, s.v. Disloyal 4. The three latter senses are now obsolete.
1780. Bentham, Princ. Legisl., xvii. § 6. The latter mode is not less certain than the former.
b. absol. or ellipt.
1608. Shaks., Per., III. ii. 29. Vertue and Cunning Were endowments greater then Noblenesse & Riches; Carelesse Heyres May the two latter darken and expend; But Immortalitie attendes the former Making a man a god.
1611. Bible, Transl. Pref., 8. To the later we answere; that wee doe not deny [etc.].
1678. Young, Serm. at Whitehall, 29 Dec., 7. The Civilians distinguishing a Law into parts, the Preceptive Part,… and the Distributive Part,… are pleas’d to call this later the Sanction … of the Law.
1870. F. R. Wilson, Ch. Lindisf., 99. A nave and chancel, with a small vestry on the north side of the latter.
† B. adv. a. More slowly. b. Later. Obs.
c. 1050. Byrhtferth’s Handboc, in Anglia (1885), VIII. 324. Ne lator þon .ii. id. martii.
c. 1175. Lamb. Hom., 15. Eour eyþer sunegað bi-foran drihten and ec leter ȝe beoð sahte.
a. 1200. Moral Ode, 131. Oðer raðer oðer later; milce he scal imeten.
c. 1200. Ormin, 13206. Þohhwheþþre comm he lattre till To lefenn uppo Criste.
1362. Langl., P. Pl., A. I. 173. Þat nis no treuþe of Trinite but tricherie of helle, And a leornyng for lewed men þe latere [v.rr. latter(e] forte dele.
c. 1400. Lanfranc’s Cirurg., 217. Ful seelden it comeþ of colre, & more lattere of malancoli.
1413. Pilgr. Sowle (Caxton, 1483), V. xiv. 109. The sone dependeth of the fader nouther more ne lesse neither latter ne rather than the fader.
1422. trans. Secreta Secret., Priv. Priv., 220. More latre Is he [the Malencoly man] wourthe than a colerike man.
Comb. 1590. Shaks., Com. Err., I. i. 79. My wife, more carefull for the latter borne.
