14 April 2018
antecedent
[an-tuh-seed-nt]
adjective
1. preceding; prior:
an antecedent event.
noun
2. a preceding circumstance, event, object, style, phenomenon, etc.
3. antecedents.
ancestors.
the history, events, characteristics, etc., of one’s earlier life:
Little is known about his birth and antecedents.
4. Grammar. a word, phrase, or clause, usually a substantive, that is replaced by a pronoun or other substitute later, or occasionally earlier, in the same or in another, usually subsequent, sentence. In Jane lost a glove and she can’t find it, Jane is the antecedent of she and glove is the antecedent of it.
5. Mathematics.
the first term of a ratio; the first or third term of a proportion.
the first of two vectors in a dyad.
6. Logic. the conditional element in a proposition, as “Caesar conquered Gaul,” in “If Caesar conquered Gaul, he was a great general.”.
Origin of antecedent
Middle English, Middle French, Latin
1350-1400; Middle English (< Middle French) < Latin antecēdent- (stem of antecēdēns) going before, present participle of antecēdere to antecede; see -ent
Related forms
antecedental [an-tuh-see-den-tl] (Show IPA), adjective
antecedently, adverb
Can be confused
antecedence, antecedents.
Synonyms
1. precursory, preexistent. 2. precursor, forerunner, ancestor.
Antonyms
1. subsequent. 2. successor.
Dictionary.com
Examples from the Web for antecedent
Contemporary Examples
Even online chat rooms have an antecedent in the exchanges of nineteenth-century American telegraph operators.
Social Media is So Old Even the Romans Had It
Nick Romeo
October 25, 2013
Historical Examples
The antecedent of this pronoun had been mentioned for the last time at eight o’clock.
Barnaby Rudge
Charles Dickens
If magnetism be an antecedent factor, magnetism may be its product.
The Machinery of the Universe
Amos Emerson Dolbear
Anagram
net enacted
a decent ten
Today’s quote
Tact is the ability to describe others as they see themselves.
– Abraham Lincoln
On this day
14 April 1865 – President Abraham Lincoln is shot by John Wilkes Booth at Ford’s Theater, Washington DC. Lincoln died the following day.
14 April 1912 – the RMS Titanic strikes an ice-berg just before midnight in the north Atlantic ocean as it sailed on its maiden voyage from Southampton UK to New York City USA , resulting in the deaths of 1,502 of the 3,372 people onboard.
14 April 1988 – Soviet Union begins withdrawing troops from Afghanistan after nine years of occupation.