English Dictionary

antedate

/ˈæntiˌdeɪt/

verb

To occur before an event or time; to exist further back in time. / To assign a date to a document or action earlier than the actual date. / (lexicography) To find earlier citational evidence for a term.

The discovery of ancient artifacts antedates the construction of the pyramids.

意味（1）

To occur before an event or time; to exist further back in time.

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.

意味（2）

To assign a date to a document or action earlier than the actual date.

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

意味（3）

(lexicography) To find earlier citational evidence for a term.

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.