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Antecedent   /ˌæntˈɛsədənt/  /ˌæntɪsˈidənt/   Listen
noun
Antecedent  n.  
1.
That which goes before in time; that which precedes. "The Homeric mythology, as well as the Homeric language, has surely its antecedents."
2.
One who precedes or goes in front. (Obs.) "My antecedent, or my gentleman usher."
3.
pl. The earlier events of one's life; previous principles, conduct, course, history. "If the troops... prove worthy of their antecedents, the victory is surely ours."
4.
(Gram.) The noun to which a relative refers; as, in the sentence "Solomon was the prince who built the temple," prince is the antecedent of who.
5.
(Logic)
(a)
The first or conditional part of a hypothetical proposition; as, If the earth is fixed, the sun must move.
(b)
The first of the two propositions which constitute an enthymeme or contracted syllogism; as, Every man is mortal; therefore the king must die.
6.
(Math.) The first of the two terms of a ratio; the first or third of the four terms of a proportion. In the ratio a:b, a is the antecedent, and b the consequent.


adjective
Antecedent  adj.  
1.
Going before in time; prior; anterior; preceding; as, an event antecedent to the Deluge; an antecedent cause.
2.
Presumptive; as, an antecedent improbability.
Synonyms: Prior; previous; foregoing.





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Antecedent" Quotes from Famous Books



... such sameness of action we allude in the popular expression "common-sense"—a term full of meaning. In the origination of a thought there are two distinct conditions: the state of the organism as dependent on antecedent impressions, and on the existing ...
— History of the Conflict Between Religion and Science • John William Draper
... in the Lambeth Library. Mller, Alteng. Epos, p. 65, places the fragment in the Finn episode, between ll. 1146 and 1147. Bugge (Beit. xii. 20) makes it illustrate the conflict in which Hnf fell, i.e. as described in Bewulf as antecedent to the events there given. Heinzel (Anzeiger f. d. Altert.), however, calls attention to the fact that Hengest in the fragment is called cyning, whereas in Bewulf, l. 1086, he is called egn. See H.-So., ...
— Beowulf • James A. Harrison and Robert Sharp, eds.
... controversy was really settled from the start. It is not essential to our purpose to give any extended history of it. The evidence relied upon by the supporters of Rowley was mainly of the external kind: personal testimony, and especially the antecedent unlikeliness that a boy of Chatterton's age and imperfect education could have reared such an elaborate structure of deceit; together with the inferiority of his acknowledged writings to the poems that he ascribed to Rowley. But Tyrwhitt was a scholar of unusual thoroughness and acuteness; ...
— A History of English Romanticism in the Eighteenth Century • Henry A. Beers
... frequently occur; and on some windows are depicted the arms and sometimes even the portraits of different benefactors to the church, with scrolls bearing inscriptions. We have, perhaps, few remains of ancient stained glass in our churches of a period antecedent to the thirteenth century: of this era, probably, are those curious circular designs which fill the greater portion of the lights at the back of the sedilia in Dorchester Church, Oxfordshire: one representing St. Augustine and St. Birinus, the first bishop of that ...
— The Principles of Gothic Ecclesiastical Architecture, Elucidated by Question and Answer, 4th ed. • Matthew Holbeche Bloxam
... draw is extremely instructive, and could only be improved on in our own day by tracing both Pagan and Christian rites to their antecedent origins in India. What he says also of the Fathers would be nowadays assented to by all who have ever had the curiosity to look into their writings; namely, "that they were as injudicious, violent, ...
— Books Condemned to be Burnt • James Anson Farrer


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