antecedently

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English

Etymology

From antecedent +‎ -ly.

Adverb

antecedently (comparative more antecedently, superlative most antecedently)

  1. At an earlier time.
    Synonyms: beforehand, earlier, precedently, previously
    Antonyms: afterward, later, subsequently
    • 1593, Richard Harvey, Philadelphus, London: John Wolfe:
      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.
    • 1661, Robert Boyle, The Sceptical Chymist, Part 4, pp. 214-215:
      [] 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.
    • 1739, David Hume, A Treatise of Human Nature, London: John Noon, Volume 1, Part 2, Section 6, p. 123:
      [] nothing is ever present to the mind but perceptions, and [] all ideas are deriv’d from something antecedently present to the mind;
    • 1896, Thomas Hardy, “An Imaginative Woman”, in Wessex Tales, New York: Harper, page 4:
      She had never antecedently regarded this occupation of his as any objection to having him for a husband.
    • 2008, Michael Della Rocca, chapter 4, in Spinoza, London: Routledge, page 161:
      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.

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