Antecedently

adv. [f. ANTECEDENT a. + -LY².]

  1.  Previously, before, in time or causal relation.

1651.  C. Cartwright, Cert. Relig., I. 227. Sinne, as a cause antecedently moving Gods will.

1694.  Slare, in Phil. Trans., XVIII. 213. That the Air was antecedently there, we may reasonably believe.

1754.  Sherlock, Disc. (1759), I. v. 186. The Obedience … to which we are antecedently bound.

1863.  Cox, Inst. Eng. Govt., II. iii. 347. Testimony as to facts which they had antecedently known.

1864.  Reader, No. 94. 471/3. Since the days of Charles VIII, if not antecedently.

  b.  with to.

1677.  Hale, Prim. Orig. Man., I. ii. 61. Notions … engraven in the Soul antecedently to any discursive Ratiocination.

1776.  Campbell, Rhet., I. 146. Testimony, antecedently to experience, hath a natural influence on belief.

1845.  Stephen, Laws of Eng., II. 300. Born antecedently to 14th August 1834.

  2.  ellipt. a. Not as a consequence, arbitrarily.

1682.  Norris, Hierocles, 52. If by the divine sentence Riches were allotted to one, and Poverty to another antecedently and absolutely.

  b.  Previously to experience, presumptively, à priori.

1861.  Maine, Anc. Law (1874), 115. It would seem antecedently that we ought to commence with the simplest social forms.

1867.  Froude, Short Stud., 150. More evidence is required to establish a fact antecedently improbable.