precedent

• præcedent (archaic)

From Middle French, from Old French, from Latin praecēdēns, present participle of praecēdere (“to precede”); See precede.

Adjective:

• IPA^(key): /pɹɪˈsiː.dənt/

Noun:

• (General American, Received Pronunciation) enPR: prĕsʹĭ-dənt, IPA^(key): /ˈpɹɛs.ɪ.dənt/
• (General Australian, General New Zealand) IPA^(key): /ˈpɹes.ə.dənt/, /ˈpɹiː.sə.dənt/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

precedent (plural precedents)

1. An act in the past which may be used as an example to help decide the outcome of similar instances in the future.
   • Hooker

     Examples for cases can but direct as precedents only.

2. (law) A decided case which is cited or used as an example to justify a judgment in a subsequent case.
3. An established habit or custom.
4. (obsolete, with definite article) The aforementioned (thing).
   • 1621, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy, Oxford: Printed by Iohn Lichfield and Iames Short, for Henry Cripps, OCLC 216894069; The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd corrected and augmented edition, Oxford: Printed by John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, 1624, OCLC 54573970, (please specify |partition=1, 2, or 3):

     , New York 2001, p.74:

     A third argument may be derived from the precedent.

5. The previous version.
6. (obsolete) A rough draught of a writing which precedes a finished copy.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Shakespeare to this entry?)

• (a case used as an example to justify a judgment in a subsequent one): case law

precedent (not comparable)

1. Happening or taking place earlier in time; previous or preceding. [from 14th c.]
2. (now rare) Coming before in a particular order or arrangement; preceding, foregoing. [from 15th c.]
   • 1621, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy, Oxford: Printed by Iohn Lichfield and Iames Short, for Henry Cripps, OCLC 216894069; The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd corrected and augmented edition, Oxford: Printed by John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, 1624, OCLC 54573970, partition III, section 2, member 1, subsection i:

     In the precedent section mention was made, amongst other pleasant objects, of this comeliness and beauty which proceeds from women […].

precedent (third-person singular simple present precedents, present participle precedenting, simple past and past participle precedented)

1. (transitive, law) To provide precedents for.
2. (transitive, law) To be a precedent for.

• stare decisis

From Latin praecēdēns.

precedent (masculine and feminine plural precedents)

1. previous, preceding

precedent m (plural precedents)

1. precedent

• precedència
• precedir

• “precedent” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
• “precedent” in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana.
• “precedent” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “precedent” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

precedent m

1. precedent (past act used as example)

• precedens

• See cese

• precedent in Kartotéka Novočeského lexikálního archivu
• precedent in Slovník spisovného jazyka českého, 1960–1971, 1989

Borrowed from Middle French precedent. First attested in the 16th century.

• IPA^(key): /ˌpreː.seːˈdɛnt/, /ˌpreː.səˈdɛnt/

• Audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: pre‧ce‧dent
• Rhymes: -ɛnt

precedent n (plural precedenten)

1. precedent

• precedentwerking

Borrowed from Latin praecēdēns. Compare Middle French preceder.

precedent m (oblique and nominative feminine singular precedent or precedente)

1. preceding; that comes before
   • 1377, Bernard de Gordon, Fleur de lis de medecine (a.k.a. lilium medicine):

     Fievre ethique vient sans fievre precedente

     Ethical[?] fever comes without a preceding fever