avant

Abbreviated from avant-garde

avant (plural avants)

1. (obsolete) The front of an army; the vanguard.

• van

• avant in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1914

From Middle French, from Old French avant (“before, prior in time, forward”), from Late Latin abante (“before, in front of”) (compare Classical Latin ante (“before, in front of”)), from Latin ab (“of, from”) + ante (“before”). More at ante.

• IPA^(key): /a.vɑ̃/

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• Homophones: avants, avent, Avent

avant

1. beforehand; earlier

   Je l'avais fait avant. ― I had done it beforehand.

avant

1. before (in time)

   Elle est arrivé un jour avant moi. ― She arrived one day before me.

   Il faut se laver avant de manger. ― You must wash before eating.

   Tais-toi avant que je ne te tue. ― Shut up before I kill you.

2. before (in space), in front of, ahead of

• avancer

avant m (plural avants)

1. front

   l'avant d'une voiture ― The front of a car.

2. (sports) forward

• “avant” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

• vanta

From Old French avant, from Late Latin abante (“before, in front of”), from Latin ab (“of, from”) + ante (“before”).

avant

1. (Jersey) beforehand; earlier

avant

1. (Jersey) before

• avant-hièr (“day before yesterday”)

avant m (plural avants)

1. (Jersey, nautical) bow

From Late Latin abante (“before, in front of”), from Latin ab (“of, from”) + ante (“before”).

avant

1. beforehand; earlier

• avancier

• French: avant
• Norman: avant

• (Sursilvan) avon
• (Sutsilvan) avànt
• (Puter) aunz, avaunt

From Late Latin abante, from Latin ab + ante, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ent- (“front, forehead”).

avant

1. (Rumantsch Grischun, Surmiran, Vallader) before, beforehand
2. (Rumantsch Grischun, Surmiran, Vallader) ago