antedated

Antedated is a term used in law, archives, and everyday language to describe dating a document or event as occurring earlier than it actually did. It can function as a verb (“to antedate”) and as an adjective (“antedated”). When a document is antedated, its stated date precedes its true creation or signing date; the same principle applies to checks, records, or notes.

Originating from Latin ante "before" and date, the word signals retroactive dating. It is distinct from other terms for time-shifting such as backdate or predate, though they are often used interchangeably in common speech; some contexts distinguish backdating as retroactive dating for legal or financial purposes, while ante-date emphasizes the pre-date assigned on the document.

Antedating can be legitimate in archival practice, for example to align a document with the date of a related event or agreement that occurred earlier than its current record. In contrast, antedating a document to mislead, defraud, or evade obligations is typically unlawful and unethical. In accounting, checks and invoices that bear dates earlier than issuance are sometimes described as antedated or backdated, depending on the jurisdiction and intent.

Antedate is also used in historical writing to indicate that a thing predates another in time, and in paleography to discuss manuscript dating. The term is less common in everyday speech than backdate, but remains a standard, precise term in formal writing.