[1580–90; ante- + L pāstus food (orig. ptp. of pāscere to feed), equiv. to pās- feed + -tus ptp. suffix]This word is first recorded in the period 1580–90. Other words that entered Englishat around the same time include: bomb, classical, critical, reference, stigmaante- is a prefix meaning “before,” used in the formation of compound words. Other wordsthat use the affix ante- include: antebellum, antedate, anteroom