aftercost

English

Alternative forms

after-cost

Etymology

after- +‎ cost

Noun

aftercost (plural aftercosts)

1. (accounting) A subsequent expense related to but occurring after the source of an expenditure.
   • 1916, Successful Farming, page 4:

     Merit and value imply comfort. an attractive design. an efficient motor, a sturdy chassis. the use of the best materials, complete equipment of tried accessories and economy in first cost and aftercost.

   • 1970, Frank Greene Dickinson, The changing position of philanthropy in the American economy:

     Of the $5,019-million total ($5,344 million less $325 million for loans), $2,564 million was classified as expenditures for aftercosts of war and $2,455 million for public social welfare or public philanthropy; that is, 51 per cent of the adjusted total expenditures from appropriated funds was disbursed for purposes which fall in our category of aftercosts of war (service-connected) and 49 per cent in our category of public philanthropy (non- service-connected).

   • 1995, United States. Tax Court, Reports of the United States Tax Court - Volume 104, page 760:

     It may be that the drafters of the regulation considered a State income tax to be an aftercost of earning income.

2. (by extension) A subsequent burden or loss resulting from an endeavor.
   • 1899, The London Quarterly and Holborn Review - Volume 91, page 87:

     Whatever be the fate of Walt Whitman as a poet or democratic philosopher, this little book assures his place as a true philanthropist, a benefactor of his suffering brethren in the first degree, bestowing on them not the productions of his singular genius, not the alleviations which wealth may procure (these he had not to give), but his great heart, his measureless sympathy, his solicitude and unwearying patience, and the soothing charm of his tranquil presence, Sweet, unaggressive, tolerant, most humane, as he ministered by day and night to the torn wrecks of men left stranded, by brutal fratricidal war, on the battlefield as on the shoals and shores of a sea of blood — ministered at the aftercost of long years of shattered health.