📖 WordNook

antecedent

adjective
  1. preceding in time or order
noun
  1. the referent of an anaphor
  2. a preceding occurrence or cause or event
  3. someone from whom you are descended (but usually more remote than a grandparent)
    ascendantascendentrootancestor
  4. anything that precedes something similar in time
    “phrenology was an antecedent of modern neuroscience”
    forerunner