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Since therefore 'tis poſſible for all objects to become cauſes or effects to each other, it may be proper to fix ſome general rules, by vvhich vve may knovv vvhen they really are ſo. […] 2. The cauſe must be prior to the effect.
"As these busts in the block of marble," though Miriam, "so does our individual fate exist in the limestone of time. We fancy that we carve it out; but its ultimate shape is prior to all our action."
1886, John Ruskin, “Rome”, in Præterita. Outlines of Scenes and Thoughts Perhaps Worthy of Memory in My Past Life, volume I, Orpington, Kent: George Allen, →OCLC, page 280:
These reconstructions took place with so great ease and rapidity at Abbeville, […] that there is now scarce vestige left of any building prior to the fifteenth century.
[T]he Mayor, […] seemed to have schooled himself into a course of strict mechanical rightness towards this woman of prior claim, at any expense to the later one, and to his own sentiments.
Etymologically, the antonym of prior is ulterior(“happening later, subsequent”) (compare primate(“earliest, first”)(obsolete) and ultimate(“final, last”)). However, as this word is regarded as archaic, typically either posterior or subsequent is used as an antonym, though they are more formal than prior, and are etymological antonyms with other words—anterior and precedent, respectively.
If an opposing pair of words is desired, instead of prior, former (antonym: latter) or previous (antonym: next) can be used.
2019 April 14, Alex McLevy, “Winter is Here on Game of Thrones’ Final Season Premiere (Newbies)”, in The A.V. Club, archived from the original on 18 December 2020:
From the opening shots of the anonymous young Winterfell boy rushing to catch a glimpse of Jon Snow and Queen Daenerys Targaryen, hearkening back to those moments of the very first episode in which Arya rushed to do the same with an approaching King Robert Baratheon, the series is calling back to its beginning, suggesting (at least for now) that the wheel continues to turn, sending us back into a pattern begun seven seasons prior.
2022 July 29, Dan Roller, “Maran Partners Fund Q2 2022 Letter”, in Seeking Alpha, archived from the original on 2022-12-08:
During each of these touchpoints, I'm asking myself where and how my thesis on each holding could be wrong. I'm checking each data point as it comes in against my priors. I'm comparing management behavior to what I would be doing if I were in their shoes.
2022 November 8, Alex Shephard, “The Cards were always Stacked against Democrats”, in Michael Tomasky, editor, The New Republic, New York, N.Y.: The Republic Publishing Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-10-04:
The votes are in, and our priors are confirmed. The truth is that midterms are nearly as predictable as death and taxes: The party that controls the White House always loses and often badly at that.
[I]t hath appertained to the Archbishops of Canterbury and York for the space of four hundred years or thereabouts to have spiritual jurisdiction over all your Grace's subjects dwelling within the provinces; […] in the meantime of vacation the same privilege resteth in the churches of Canterbury and York; and is executed by the prior, dean and chapter of the said churches; […]
1673, John Ray, “Of Venice”, in Observations Topographical, Moral, & Physiological; Made in a Journey through part of the Low-countries, Germany, Italy, and France:, London: John Martyn, printer to the Royal Society,, →OCLC, page 184:
[F]irſt of all among themſelves of the ancienteſt they chuſe three heads or chiefs vvhich they call Priors; and alſo of the youngeſt among them they chuſe tvvo vvho perform the office of Secretaries. The Priors ſit dovvn, having before them a table upon vvhich are placed tvvo balloting boxes of that ſort that are uſed in the Great Council; in one of vvhich are put 40 balls, marked vvith a certain mark, that no deceit may be uſed. The reſt of the 41 ſit alſo dovvn, each vvhere he pleaſes. […] Then they are called one by one before the three Priors, and each one vvrites in his Schedule the name of him vvhom he vvould have to be Duke, and leaves it upon the table.
Q. Fuluio Ap. Claudio, prioris anni consulibus, prorogatum imperium est atque exercitus quos habebant decreti, adiectumque ne a Capua quam obsidebant abscederent priusquam expugnassent.
The military authority of Quintus Fulvius and Appius Claudius, consuls of the previous year, was extended and the armies which they had were decided upon, and it was added as a proviso that they should not withdraw from Capua, which they were besieging, until they conquered it.
“ tē propter eundem / exstīnctus pudor et, quā sōlā sīdera adībam, / fāma prior. ”
“Likewise, because of you, my sense of honor is gone, and a better reputation which was my only way to the stars.” (As a widow, Dido's chastity and devotion to the memory of her first husband would have been well-regarded in Augustan Rome.)
This adjective has no positive form; rather, it serves as the comparative (prior) and superlative (prīmus) of the preposition prae. (Compare the preposition post, with comparative posterior and superlative postremus).
Declension
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“prior”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
“prior”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
prior in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
prior in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book, London: Macmillan and Co.
last year: superiore, priore anno
(ambiguous) there is nothing I am more interested in than..: nihil antiquius or prius habeo quam ut (nihil mihi antiquius or potius est, quam ut)