antedate

ante- +‎ date

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈæntiˌdeɪt/

antedate (third-person singular simple present antedates, present participle antedating, simple past and past participle antedated)

1. To occur before an event or time; to exist further back in time.
   • 1931, H. P. Lovecraft, The Whisperer in Darkness, chapter 2:

     I suppose you know all about the fearful myths antedating the coming of man to the earth—the Yog-Sothoth and Cthulhu cycles—which are hinted at in the Necronomicon.

2. To assign a date to a document or action earlier than the actual date; to backdate.
   • 1633: John Donne, "Woman's Constancy"

     Tomorrow when you leav’st, what wilt thou say? / Wilt thou then antedate some new-made vow?

3. (lexicography) To find earlier citational evidence for a term.
   • 2018, James Lambert, “A multitude of ‘lishes’: The nomenclature of hybridity”, in English World-Wide‎, page 3:

     Furthermore, while OED entries are generally regarded as a good indication of when terms were first used in English, for 5 of the 7 terms the present research has been able to antedate OED’s earliest attestations, usually by a decade or more.

• (occur before an event or time): predate; see also Thesaurus:predate
• (earlier than the actual date): backdate, foredate

• (occur before an event or time): postdate
• (earlier than the actual date): postdate, overdate

antedate

1. Prior date; a date antecedent to another which is the actual date.
2. (obsolete) anticipation

   (Can we find and add a quotation of John Donne to this entry?)

antedate

1. Formal second-person singular (usted) imperative form of antedatar.
2. First-person singular (yo) present subjunctive form of antedatar.
3. Formal second-person singular (usted) present subjunctive form of antedatar.
4. Third-person singular (él, ella, also used with usted^?) present subjunctive form of antedatar.