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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



... Stephens in 1557. Clement (Biblioth. iv. 147.) takes notice of an impression issued two years previously; and these bibliographers have been followed by Greswell (Paris. G. P. i. 342. 390.). Were they all unacquainted with the antecedent exertions of Sante Pagnini (See Pettigrew's ...
— Notes and Queries, Number 56, November 23, 1850 • Various

... breaks or leaps in the life of a people. Development may hasten or may slacken, and may seem to cease for a time, but it is always continuous; it always proceeds out of antecedent conditions, and if it be arrested for a time it begins again at the point where ...
— A Guide to Methods and Observation in History - Studies in High School Observation • Calvin Olin Davis

... time approached all was fair and promising. By one of those turns, however, which it pleases Providence for his own wise purposes frequently to ordain, to mock our best hopes and baffle our most sanguine expectations, this admirable woman was, contrary to every antecedent prognostic, visited in her travail with epileptic fits, in which she expired, "leaving," (as the sublime Burke no less truly than pathetically said on the death of doctor Johnson,) "not only nothing to fill her place, but nothing that has ...
— The Mirror of Taste, and Dramatic Censor - Vol I, No. 2, February 1810 • Samuel James Arnold

... such, it must be one which is its own predicate, so far at least that all other nominal predicates must be modes and repetitions of itself. Its existence too must be such, as to preclude the possibility of requiring a cause or antecedent ...
— Biographia Literaria • Samuel Taylor Coleridge

... remarks is, that all causation is an exertion of mind, and is only figuratively applied to matter. It necessarily implies power, will, and action. An efficient cause—we are not speaking now of a mere antecedent—is that which is necessarily followed by the effect, so that, if it were known, the effect might be predicted antecedently to all experience. Cicero describes it with philosophical accuracy. "Causa ea est, quae id efficit, cujus est causa. Non sic causa intelligi debet, ut quod cuique ...
— A Theory of Creation: A Review of 'Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation' • Francis Bowen


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