Skip to content

antecedent

noun

  1. in behavioral psychology, stimulus that cues an organism to perform a learned behavior
L316321 on Wikidata ↗

adjective

No English definition recorded for this entry.

L334469 on Wikidata ↗

Wiktionary

Pronunciation: /ˌæntɪˈsiːdənt/

adj

Etymology: From Middle English antecedent, borrowed from Old French antecedent, from Latin antecēdēns (“going before”), from antecēdō (“to precede; excel; surpass”).

  1. Earlier, either in time or in order.

    an antecedent cause

    an event antecedent to the Biblical Flood

  2. Presumptive.

    an antecedent improbability

noun

Etymology: From Middle English antecedent, borrowed from Old French antecedent, from Latin antecēdēns (“going before”), from antecēdō (“to precede; excel; surpass”).

  1. Any thing that precedes another thing, especially the cause of the second thing.
  2. An ancestor.

    The Boston agent added that this clerk was a young man of wholly unquestioned veracity and reliability, of known antecedents and long with the company.

  3. A word, phrase or clause referred to by a pronoun or other pro-form.

    [W]hereas it might seem orderly that, as who is appropriated to persons, so that should have been appropriated to things […] the antecedent of that is often personal

    One such condition can be formulated in terms of the c-command relation defined in (9) above: the relevant condition is given in (16) below: (16) C-COMMAND CONDITION ON ANAPHORS An anaphor must have an appropriate c-commanding antecedent

  4. The conditional part of a hypothetical proposition, i.e. p→q, where p is the antecedent, and q is the consequent.
  5. The first of two subsets of a sequent, consisting of all the sequent's formulae which are valuated as true.
  6. The first term of a ratio, i.e. the term a in the ratio a:b, the other being the consequent.
  7. Previous principles, conduct, history, etc.