After a consecutive opening of each eye, I threw myself bodily from bed covers, and staggered to the lavatory. Consequently, I slashed. Later, I brewed the kettle, and subsequently turned on my radio. Afterwards, there, upon the sideboard, lay a dry packet of dry spaghetti. Yet and yes, why had my wife not placed the spaghetti in the cupboard? I mueslied. But definitely I would put the spaghetti in the cupboard, there and then. But, it all fell out, on the floor like pick a stix, and also there was cat shit shit everywhere. Because, 'Fuck it,' I screamed. Later, I apologised.
I did say shades of association, not that it literally means something that it doesn't. Words carry associations as well as dictionary definitions, and good writers are aware of both. I can't tell if you're being tongue-in-cheek or actually that pedantic.
itsfrom the latin vern subsequi ... to follow from ... so it does mean afterwards, but in a first this happened and that made this happen kind of way. "Donald Trump ordered an attack on pyongyang and subsequently Seoul was destroyed by an artillery barrage" rather than Donald Trump ordered and attack on pyongyang and subsequently I had a cup of tea
Both are effective: 'Donald Trump orders an attack on Pyongyang,' said @Moose, and he moved his War Game commander to headquarters. 'Subsequently Seoul is destroyed by an artillery barrage, nnneehh!' said Alfred, his buddy. ... or Donald Trump orders an attack on London, and subsequently I have a cup of tea. I mean, what can we do, it's fifty miles away, at least?
Exactly, and that comes across in the ways people often use "subsequently". This is why mastering word choice takes more than just referring to dictionary entries, which can only give brief summaries of words that are almost always going to be more complicated than one or two sentences can permit. If you're going to be precise in your language use, you have to be more than a dictionary stickler. There are too many other things to know about words, and it helps to be able to pick them up by reading and finding patterns in actual examples of usage as well as by checking against dictionaries. The way that people use words is going to alter their nuance and connotations more than a dictionary can keep up with or explain concisely. "Subsequently" often comes up when people are specifically talking about the order of events and considering things like correlation and causation, while the broader and often simpler uses of "later" inevitably make it sound casual, and it tends to refer to events that aren't obviously related, but seem to happen independently of each other. That associated usage in itself can arguably make it interesting when it becomes apparent that something described as happening merely "later" was directly connected to what came before, as the reader learns more about the characters, etc. So the difference in vagueness can create a different effect for the reader. That's why it's worth being able to recognise these differences. Again, this is why it's not about using simpler or fancier or more or fewer words, it's about using precise words, the right tool for the right job. Pretentiousness isn't using the word "consequently", it's using the word "consequently" in situations where the same full meaning can be conveyed by something simpler or something that better matches the intended effect or narrative voice. (Pretentiousness would probably also be pointing out that I could/should be using the original noun "pretension". But I think our associations of the less proper -ness form are closer tied to the human quality of being an affected, pompous ass, and in itself that word communicates an attitude about how language should not be pretentious, even if the dictionary definition is basically the same.)
