Like nightmarish creatures, the McDonald's have sprung up from the ground in a little over two decades, and subsequently inundated the Media with adverts for their "food" products.

subsequently 是由 subsequent（随后的）加上副词后缀 -ly 构成的副词。subsequent 本身来自拉丁语 subsequi（跟随），其中 sub- 表示"在...之后"，sequi 表示"跟随"。这个词表示"随后、接着"的意思，强调时间上的先后顺序。