anteriority

[Eng. anterior; -ity. In Fr. antériorité ; Sp. anterior i dad ; Port. anterioridade; Ital. anterior it a .] The state of being before in place or in time. "Our poet could not have seen the prophecy of Isaiah, because he lived 100 or 150 years before that prophet: and this anteriority of time makes this pa age the more observable."- Pope : Iliad , xix., note, v. 93. ăn-tër-i-or-lý, adv. [Eng. anterior; -ly.] In an anterior situation. "Anteriorly the pre sphenoid narrows to a sharp vertical edge."-Flower: Osteol. of the Mammal i a, (1870), p. 128. ăn-těr-ō, in compos. [From Lat. anterior = which is before; ante = before.]