Belated thanks, long overdue,
Are flying from me straight to you.
So take heart and stand
but not on my hand.
Nor on Alfred who if startled goes “Mioaw”

You see Alfred is a very hot cat
He hates to sit down on my mat.
He likes my warm lap
And wears a small cap
To show he’s real holy,howzat?

Did You Know?

Long ago, there was a verb belate, which meant “to make late.” From the beginning, belate tended to mostly turn up in the form of its past participle belated. Eventually, belate itself fell out of use, leaving behind belated as an adjective that preserved the original notion of delay. As you may have guessed, belate and its descendant belated derive from the adjective late; belate was formed by simply combining the prefix be- (“to cause to be”) with late. Belated was also once used in the sense “overtaken by night,” as in “belated travelers seeking lodging for the night.” This sense was in fact the first meaning of the adjective but it too fell out of use.