antecedent
noun /ˌæntɪˈsiːdnt/
/ˌæntɪˈsiːdnt/
- [countable] (formal) a thing or an event that exists or comes before another, and may have influenced it
- antecedents[plural] (formal) the people in somebody’s family who lived a long time ago synonym ancestor, forebearTopics Family and relationshipsc2
- [countable] (grammar) a word or phrase to which the following word, especially a pronoun, refers
- In ‘He grabbed the ball and threw it in the air’, ‘ball’ is the antecedent of ‘it’.
Word Originlate Middle English: from Old French or from Latin antecedent- ‘going before’, from antecedere, from ante ‘before’ + cedere ‘go’.