Antedate
/ˌæn.tiˈdeɪt/noun
To assign or occur before a particular date or event.
Did you know?Antedate comes from Latin ante- (“before”) + date, and its power is all about moving events backward on the timeline, as if language itself could rewrite time.
Etymological Timeline
Latin
Latin
ante
“before, in front of”
Late Latin
Latin
dātāre
“to date, assign a time”
Middle French
Old French
antedater
“to date earlier than the actual time”
16th Century
English
antedate
“to assign an earlier date to; to precede in time”
Modern English
English
antedate
“to date earlier than the actual time or to exist before something else”
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