Both Uses of
antecedent
in
A Tale of Two Cities
- It was the first time it had ever been so complemented, and Madame Defarge knew enough of its antecedents to know better.†
Chpt 2.16 *
- Impossible, here in raging Paris, with Suspicion filling the air, for you to outlive denunciation, when you are in communication with another aristocratic spy of the same antecedents as yourself, who, moreover, has the mystery about him of having feigned death and come to life again!†
Chpt 3.8
Definitions:
-
(1)
(antecedent) something that happened previous to something else; or anything that precedes something
-
(2)
(meaning too rare to warrant focus) meaning too rare to warrant focus:
More rarely and more specifically, antecedent can take on these specialized meanings:
Grammar: a word or phrase that precedes a pronoun and to which the pronoun refers. In She is the best at math in her grade, the pronoun her refers to the antecedent she.
Logic: a condition in a hypothetical proposition such as If all people are moral, then you are mortal.
Genealogy: All of someone's ancestors.
For less common examples, including one in math, see a comprehensive dictionary.