a. [a. L. anterior fore, former, f. ante before; cf. Fr. antérieur, Cotgr.]
1. Of place: Fore, more to the front; opposed to posterior.
1611. Cotgr., Anterieur, Anterior, fore, former … that goeth, or is set, before.
1626. Bacon, Sylva, § 115. Where the anteriour body giveth way, as fast as the posteriour cometh on, it maketh no noise.
1831. Brewster, Optics, xxxv. 288. The two parts into which the iris divides the eye are called the anterior and the posterior chambers.
2. Of time and progress: Going before, preceding, former, earlier, prior.
1794. Sullivan, View Nat., II. The memory of anterior ages.
1850. McCosh, Div. Govt., III. i. (1874), 271. The mind has not only the power of action, but the anterior … power of choice.
b. with to. (Like similar L. comparatives, anterior is, in Eng., comparative in sense, but not in construction; we do not say anterior than.)
1728. M. Scriblerus, in Pope, Dunc. (1736), 30. The first Dunciad was the first Epic poem … anterior even to the Iliad or Odyssey.
1856. Dove, Logic Chr. Faith, V. i. § 1. 243. Intuition is logically anterior to metaphysic.
