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English
Etymology
From Latin ante (“before”) + litteram, accusative singular of littera (“letter, writing”).
Prepositional phrase
ante litteram
- Before the term existed; before the term was coined.
In the fifteenth century, he espoused ecology ante litteram. He endorsed ecology before the term "ecology" existed.
2007, Patricia Vilches, Gerald E. Seaman, Seeking Real Truths: Multidisciplinary Perspectives on Machiavelli, page 191:What could have been a moral victory or arguably a feminist struggle ante litteram remains a farcical squabble between a nagging wife and a ridiculous old man.
2011, Davide Rodogno, Against Massacre: Humanitarian Interventions in the Ottoman Empire, 1815-1914, page 16:the new mass media played an increasingly crucial role throughout the nineteenth century as an ante litteram CNN.
Usage notes
Usually used postpositively, after a term applied anachronistically.
Synonyms
Italian
Etymology
Unadapted borrowing from Latin ante litteram.
Adverb
ante litteram
- ante litteram
- Synonym: avantilettera
1994, Massimo Baldini, La storia delle utopie, page 92:È una utopia «non solo sociale, ma scientifica e cosmica. Réstif è evoluzionista e lamarckiano ante litteram, ma con accenti fantastici»- (please add an English translation of this quotation)
2013, Massimo Pazienti, Le guide di Roma tra medioevo e novecento: Dai mirabilia urbis ai baedeker, page 49:Simbolo di questo nuovo approccio, non più immaginifico ma archeologico ante litteram, ai resti classici è proprio l'aggirarsi di Poggio Bracciolini tra le rovine dei monumenti, abbandonati tra le erbacce ed esposti alle spoliazioni, per “interrogarli”.- (please add an English translation of this quotation)
2005, Mark Twain (from the Introduction by translator Giuseppe Culicchia), Le avventure di Huckleberry Finn, page 3:E mettendo il racconto in bocca a un teppista ante litteram come Huck Finn, che a scoula ci va raramente e in ogni caso mai volentieri, opera un scempio (scientifico) della grammatica e della sintassi.- (please add an English translation of this quotation)
Usage notes