L. prep. and adv., used in composition with vbs., as antecēdere to go before; vbl. sbs., as antecēssor a foregoer; other sbs. and adjs. derived from phrases, as antecēnium (from ante cēnam), antetemplum, antemeridiānus (f. ante meridiem), antepænultimus (f. ante pænultimum). Examples of all these have been adopted in Eng. directly or through Fr., and have, since 1600, served as models for the formation of others, especially of the last class, from which, as in ante-temple, ante-nuptial, ante- has acquired a separable character, and is prefixed to other words, as ante-room, ante-Cuvierian, ante-date. Adjectives of this type are formed at will, either with or without adj. endings, as ante-baptismal, ante-Norman, anti-reformational; and ante-communion, ante-reformation, ante-war. The latter are really attributive phrases, similar to the native after-dinner oration, before-breakfast lesson, out-of-doors employment, up-stairs room. The former, though formally compounds of ante + adjective, are in sense adj. formations on a phrase, as ante-mundane, logically (ante mund)um + ane; cf. (old-woman)ish. Some of the more obvious of these combinations of ante- are grouped together here, as not needing separate treatment.
A. sbs. (Main stress on a·nte-: a·ntechapel.)
1. Of position: in which ante- usually = A smaller introductory —; as ante-cavern, -closet, -garden, -hall, -porch, -portico, -stomach; also ante-bath, an apartment opening into the bath; ante-church = ANTE-CHAPEL; ante-nave, the western part of a divided nave; ante-number, the preceding number. These begin after 1600.
1817. Edin. Rev., XXVIII. 330. The bathers first enter a vault or *antebath. Ibid., 331. The Georgian ladies employ the *ante-caverns as dressing rooms.
1874. Micklethwaite, Mod. Par. Ch., § 27. If there is an *antechurch, they should be placed there.
1705. Phil. Trans., XXV. 2109. Its Entrance, first and second Galleries, *Anticlosets.
1861. Gard. Chron., 6 July, 621/3. The spectator is supposed to stand in the *antegarden.
1848. Lytton, Harold, III. iv. 80. One of these last ushered the noble Saxons into a low, forlorn *ante-hall.
1829. Southey, All for Love, IV. Wks. VII. 173. Now before the Holy Door In the *Ante-nave they stand.
1626. Bacon, Sylva, § 106. Whatsoever Vertue is in Numbers, for Conducing to Concent of Notes, is rather to be ascribed to the *Ante-number than to the Entire Number.
1624. Wotton, Archit. (1672), 28. An Atrium Græcum (we may translate it an *Anti-Porch, after the Greek manner).
1838. Britton, Dict. Arch., 13. Antica … a door, a porch, or *ante-portico.
1691. Ray, Creation (1714), 28. Swallowed into the Crop or Craw, or at least into a kind of *Antestomach.
2. Of time or order: in which ante = A previous or anticipatory —, or A something previous or anticipatory to —; as ante-dawn, -disposition, -luminary, -occupation, -predicament, -spring, -taste; also ante-eternity, the quality of having existed from all eternity; ante-noon, the fore-noon. These begin after 1600.
1841. Blackw. Mag., XLIX. 287/1. That mysterious *ante-dawn—that prelibation of the full daylight, which, under the name of the Zodiacal light, perplexes the oriental surveyor of the heavens.
1611. Florio, Antidispositione, an *antidisposition, or precedent inclination.
1678. Cudworth, Intell. Syst., 141. He … maintained … the Worlds *Ante-Eternity and Incorruptibility.
1684. Charnock, Attrib. God (1834), I. 367. The promise of eternal life is as ancient as God himself as it hath an *ante-eternity, so it hath a post-eternity.
1686. Goad, Celest. Bodies, I. xv. 96. At other hours of the *Ante-Noon.
1656. Blount, Glossogr., *Anteoccupation, a preventing or seising first.
1706. Phillips, *Antepredicaments (in Logick) things necessary to be known before-hand, for the better understanding of the Predicaments; as Definitions, of Univocal, Equivocal and Denominative Terms, &c.
1881. G. Milner, Country Pleas., i. 2. We have our ante-spring—our premonitory awakening.
1861. Sheppard, Fall of Rome, iv. 165. An *antetaste of those dire and bloody struggles.
B. adjs. (Main stress not on ante: ante-nu·ptial, ante-wa·r. Mostly of 19th century.)
1. Of position: in which ante = Before, in front of —; as ante-cæcal, before the cæcum or ‘blind gut’; ante-initial, before the beginning, prefatory; ante-pectoral, in front of the breast.
1861. Hulme, trans. Moquin-Tandon, II. I. 44. The small intestine or *anticæcal.
1834. Southey, Doctor (1862), 2. The chapters *ante-initial and post-initial.
1826. Kirby & Spence, Entomol., IV. xxxviii. 38. The *antepectoral pair of the mole-cricket.
2. Of time or order: in which ante = Occurring or existing in the time before (a fact or condition, implied in the following adj., or definitely expressed by the following sb.); as a. with adj. ending: ante-Babylonish, -baptismal, -Christian, -ecclesiastical, -Gothic, -historic, -human; ante-jentacular, before breakfast; ante-judiciary, taking place before judgment; ante-Justinianian, -metallic, -mortal, Mosaical, -Norman, -nuptial; ante-patriarchal, existing before the patriarchs; ante-posthumous, posthumous (professedly), but written before; -reformational, -revolutional, -revolutionary. b. with sb., forming attrib. phr.: ante-bridal, -communion, -reformation, -resurrection, -sunrise, -war. Cf. the L. ante-mortem, before-death. In this sense ante- varies with pre-.
1835. I. Taylor, Spir. Desp., iii. 96. The *antebabylonish Jews.
1850. C. Wordsworth, Occas. Serm., Ser. I. 104. Those Infants, who are to be saved, are saved by *ante-baptismal regeneration.
1847. L. Hunt, Men, Wom., & Bks., II. x. 219. *Ante-bridal trepidation.
1858. Sears, Athan., III. iii. 270. What was the *ante-Christian doctrine respecting the condition of the dead?
1827. Gentl. Mag., XCVII. II. 487/2. This part of the *Ante-Communion Service is now so commonly omitted on Sundays.
1880. Günther, Fishes, 16. Several of such *antecuvierian works must be mentioned.
1829. Southey, in Q. Rev., XXXIX. 361. Almost as little is to be said of its [Durham’s] *ante-ecclesiastical history as of its ante-diluvian.
1834. H. Coleridge, Grk. Class. Poets, 99. This event … is involved in the same thick mist of *ante-historic antiquity.
1860. Farrar, Orig. Lang., x. 214. Other languages also in an *ante-historical and embryonary state.
1861. Tulloch, Eng. Purit., ii. 264. He fills up the *ante-human space … by an array of spiritual machinery.
1811. Knox & Jebb, Corr., II. 44. This *ante-jentacular hour.
1679. Prance, Addit. Narr., 50. Purgatory, or *Antejudiciary and intermedial delivery of souls.
1880. Muirhead, Gaius, Introd. 7. Any question of *Ante-Justinianian law.
1865. Lubbock, Preh. Times, 60. The Stone age … the *ante-metallic period.
1827. Hare, Guesses, II. (1873), 556. If a spirit … were to revisit this home of its *antemortal existence.
1883. Standard, 16 May, 5/2. The *ante-mortem treatment of the brutes.
1684. T. Burnet, Th. Earth, I. 283. I look upon all other [books] that pretend to be *ante-Mosaical or patriarchal, as spurious and fabulous.
1863. Cox, Inst. Eng. Govt., I. iii. 11. As to the *ante-Norman councils.
1818. Hallam, Mid. Ages (1872), III. 75. To legitimate the duke of Lancaster’s *ante-nuptial children.
1765. Tucker, Lt. Nat., II. 328. We have not the least hint of any such primeval Sages or *antepatriarchal Saracens, Goths, and Vandals, even in the fabulous history.
1855. Cdl. Wiseman, Fabiola, 220. The old capsararius as he had had himself rattlingly called in his *ante-posthumous inscription.
1852. S. Maitland, Essays, 165. They had never seen any *ante-reformation Waldenses.
1861. A. B. Hope, Eng. Cathedr. 19th C., iii. 73. Bishop Osmond, the regulator of the *ante-reformational English ritual.
1839. W. Irving, Wolfert’s Roost (1855), 164. An old gentleman, whose dress was decidedly *ante-revolutional.
1860. Mill, Repres. Govt. (1865), 23/2. With Austria or *ante-revolutionary France.
1858. Sears, Athan., iv. 25. The *ante-resurrection period.
1842. Chamb. Jrnl., 30 July, 221/3. The white Alps, looking in the dim *ante-sunrise light, as if some lurid atmosphere had been drawn like a thin curtain before them.
1878. N. Amer. Rev., CXXVII. 123. To go back to *ante-war money, ante-war wages, and ante-war prices, might be tolerable if, at the same time, we could go back to ante-war freedom from debt and ante-war lightness of national taxation.
