Meaning
ANTECE'DENT, a. Going before in time; prior; anterior; preceding; as, an event antecedent to the deluge.
ANTECE'DENT, n. That which goes before in time; hence in writings, that which precedes in place. In grammar, the noun to which a relative or other substitute refers; as, Solomon was the prince, who built the Temple. In logic, the first of two propositions in an enthymeme, or argument of two propositions; as, if the sun is fixed, the earth must move. Here the first and conditional proposition is the antecedent; the second, the consequent.
In mathematics, the first of two terms of a ratio, or that which is compared with the other.
