antedate

English

Etymology

ante- +‎ date

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈæntiˌdeɪt/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

Verb

antedate (third-person singular simple present antedates, present participle antedating, simple past and past participle antedated)

1. To occur before an event or time; to exist further back in time.

   Synonyms: predate; see also Thesaurus:predate

   Antonym: postdate

   • 1931, H[oward] P[hillips] Lovecraft, chapter 2, in The Whisperer in Darkness:

     I suppose you know all about the fearful myths antedating the coming of man to the earth—the Yog-Sothoth and Cthulhu cycles—which are hinted at in the Necronomicon.

   • 1986, People v. Calio‎, 42 Cal.3d 639,644:

     We therefore turn to the question whether defendant's prior convictions for burglary and attempted burglary could be used as the basis for an enhancement under [California Penal Code] sections 667 and 1192.7. Both prior convictions antedate the effective date of section 667.

   • 2010, Giancarlo Gandolfo, Economic Dynamics, 4th edition, Springer, page 311:

     Actually, mathematical models of multi-sector growth models antedate the Harrod-Domar and Solow-Swan aggregate models.

2. To assign a date to a document or action earlier than the actual date.

   Synonyms: backdate, foredate; see also Thesaurus:backdate

   Antonyms: postdate, overdate; see also Thesaurus:overdate

   • 1633, John Donne, Woman's Constancy:

     Tomorrow when you leav’st, what wilt thou say? / Wilt thou then antedate some new-made vow?

3. (lexicography) To find earlier citational evidence for a term.
   • 2017 January, James Lambert, “A multitude of “lishes”: The nomenclature of hybridity”, in English World-Wide‎, volume 38, number 3, →DOI, →ISSN:

     Furthermore, while OED entries are generally regarded as a good indication of when terms were first used in English, for 5 of the 7 terms the present research has been able to antedate OED’s earliest attestations, usually by a decade or more.

Derived terms

Translations

Noun

antedate

1. Prior date; a date antecedent to another which is the actual date.
2. (obsolete) anticipation

Portuguese

Verb

antedate

1. inflection of antedatar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative

Spanish

Verb

antedate

1. inflection of antedatar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative