Posthumous means happening after the person's death. A posthumous award, posthumous publication, posthumously pardoned.
It covers awards, pardons, publications and children born after a father's death, which is the oldest use. Note the spelling: the h is intrusive, added because scholars connected the word with humus, the ground, and burial — the Latin postumus simply means last, a superlative of after.
1adjectiveposthumousHappening after the person's death.
“The soldier received a posthumous medal for his bravery.”
posthumous is a quality of coming after death.
Latin postumus means last, from posterus, coming after. The h was added by a false connection with humus, the ground.
Latin
posthumus
English, today
posthumous
Built from
From Latin posthumus, a variant spelling of postumus, superlative form of posterus (“coming after”), the ⟨h⟩ added by association with humus (“ground, earth”) referring to burial.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA