Dictionary

antecedently en · ADV

Etymology

Etymology tree English antecedent Middle English -ly English -ly English antecedently From antecedent + -ly.

Meanings

1. At an earlier time.
   • The History of Brute and the Brutans setteth forth. Principally and antecedently their persons, & in them sheweth the geneallogy or issue which they had, artes which they studied, actes which they did. 1593, Richard Harvey, Philadelphus, London: John Wolfe:
   • […] it does not at all appear, that all Mixtures must be of Elementary Bodies; but it seems farr more probable, that there are divers sorts of compound Bodies, even in regard of all or some of their Ingredients, consider’d Antecedently to their Mixture. 1661, Robert Boyle, The Sceptical Chymist, Part 4, pp. 214-215:
   • […] nothing is ever present to the mind but perceptions, and […] all ideas are deriv’d from something antecedently present to the mind; 1739, David Hume, A Treatise of Human Nature, London: John Noon, Volume 1, Part 2, Section 6, p. 123:
   • The case of envy just described is one in which we feel joy or sadness at the sadness or joy of one we antecedently hate. 2008, Michael Della Rocca, chapter 4, in Spinoza, London: Routledge, page 161:
   • She had never antecedently regarded this occupation of his as any objection to having him for a husband. 1896, Thomas Hardy, “An Imaginative Woman”, in Wessex Tales, New York: Harper, page 4:

Forms

Antonyms

later · subsequently · afterward

Synonyms

previously · earlier · precedently · beforehand

Translations (3)

pt antecedentemente (in an antecedent manner) · eo antaŭe (in an antecedent manner) · fr antécédemment (in an antecedent manner)