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preceding; prior:
an antecedent event.
a preceding circ-mstance, event, object, style, phenomenon, etc.
antecedents.

.
the history, events, characteristics, etc., of one’s earlier life:
little is known about his birth and antecedents.

grammar. a word, phrase, or clause, usually a substantive, that is replaced by a pr-noun or other subst-tute later, or occasionally earlier, in the same or in another, usually subsequent, sentence. in jane lost a glove and she can’t find it, jane is the antecedent of she and glove is the antecedent of it.
mathematics.

the first term of a ratio; the first or third term of a proportion.
the first of two vectors in a dyad.

logic. the conditional element in a proposition, as “caesar conquered gaul,” in “if caesar conquered gaul, he was a great general.”.
contemporary examples

even online chat rooms have an antecedent in the exchanges of nineteenth-century american telegraph operators.
social media is so old even the romans had it nick romeo october 24, 2013

historical examples

but love is a complacency, and benevolence is but its effect or antecedent.
a christian directory (volume 1 of 4) richard baxter

his scientists, his historians were all of the victorian age or antecedent thereto.
a daughter of the middle border hamlin garland

sir isaac newton somewhere lays it down for a rule, never to admit for history what is antecedent to letters.
a new system; or, an -n-lysis of antient mythology. volume i. jacob bryant

no, its head spring, in this case, was antecedent to the lake.
bertha and her baptism nehemiah adams

in (a) the antecedent must be affirmed, in (b) the consequent must be denied; otherwise the arguments become fallacious.
encyclopaedia britannica, 11th edition, volume 6, slice 7 various

it is not brought about by the presence of antecedent realities.
blackwood’s edinburgh magazine, volume 62, no. 382, october 1847 various

antecedent of that personal pr-noun, please; who may the ‘she’ in question be?
the riddle of the night thomas w. hanshew

this appears to be the antecedent of the modern country club.
domestic life in virginia in the seventeenth century annie lash jester

he loved his craft, he believed he had not succeeded the millions of antecedent tailors in vain.’
the perfect gentleman ralph bergengren

noun
an event, circ-mstance, etc, that happens before another
(grammar) a word or phrase to which a pr-noun refers. in the sentence “people who live in gl-ss houses shouldn’t throw stones,” people is the antecedent of who
(logic) the hypothetical clause, usually introduced by “if”, in a conditional statement: that which implies the other
(maths) an obsolescent name for numerator (sense 1)
(logic) denying the antecedent, the fallacy of inferring the falsehood of the consequent of a conditional statement, given the truth of the conditional and the falsehood of its antecedent, as if there are five of them, there are more than four: there are not five, so there are not more than four
adjective
preceding in time or order; prior

late 14c. (n. and adj.), from old french antecedent (14c.) or directly from latin antecedentem (nominative antecedens), present participle of antecedere “go before, precede,” from ante- “before” (see ante) + cedere “to yield” (see cede). used as a noun in latin philosophical writings.

antecedent an·te·ce·dent (ān’tĭ-sēd’nt)
n.
a precursor.