anterior

Forms

anterior (comparative, neuter anterius, no positive form); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin ante (“before”), made as a comparative on the model of posterior.^[2][1] Wiktionary also gives an alternative: the comparative of a lost adjective *anterus, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂énteros.^[1] The grammarian Priscian lists it among comparatives formed from adverbs or prepositions and says he found no superlative.^[3]

The preposition itself goes back to Proto-Italic *anti (“before, in front of”) and Proto-Indo-European *h₂ent-i, the locative of a root noun meaning “front”.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL finds it once in Celsus and more often from Tertullian on.^[3] Celsus uses it of place, writing that a person strains towards the front part (in anteriorem partem).^[3][5]

Semantic evolution

Lewis and Short call it a late word.^[6] It was used of place, for what is in front, such as the front part of the chest, of a cloak or of the head,^[3][6] and of time, for what is earlier or former, as in the jurists and in letters.^[3][6][2] The neuter anterius served as an adverb, “before”.^[6][5]

Medieval Latin kept both senses, and used the plural anteriores as a noun for forefathers.^[7] English took the word over in the 1610s.^[8]

Timeline

• 14–37 AD – Celsus uses it once, of the front part of the body.^[3][9]
• c. 160–220 AD – From Tertullian on it becomes more frequent.^[3][9]
• c. 340–402 AD – Symmachus speaks of a correspondent's earlier letters.^[6][9]
• c. 390 AD – Ammianus Marcellinus writes of the front part of a cloak.^[3][9]
• c. 431–486 AD – Sidonius uses the adverb anterius “before”.^[6][9]
• 1610s – English borrows it as anterior.^[8]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Situated in front, foremost.^[3][6][5]
2. Earlier, previous, former.^[2][6][5]
3. (Medieval Latin, as a plural noun) Forefathers, predecessors.^[7]

Related words

• ante
• posterior
• English anterior

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ a b c d Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
8. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de