Both Uses of
antecedent
in
A Room With A View
- Let us put it down to his deplorable antecedents and education, if you wish.†
Chpt 7 *
- Chapter X: Cecil as a Humourist The society out of which Cecil proposed to rescue Lucy was perhaps no very splendid affair, yet it was more splendid than her antecedents entitled her to.†
Chpt 10
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.