An antedated

contract A contract is a legally enforceable agreement between two or more parties that creates, defines, and governs mutual rights and obligations between them. A contract typically involves the transfer of goods, services, money, or a promise to ...

is a contract whose date is in the past; formally, a contract where the effective date on the contract is prior to the date on which the contract is executed (written, signed, made effective). The term is from

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power ...

''ante'' meaning "before", and its

antonym In lexical semantics, opposites are words lying in an inherently incompatible binary relationship. For example, something that is ''long'' entails that it is not ''short''. It is referred to as a 'binary' relationship because there are two members ...

is ''

postdate In banking, a post-dated cheque is a cheque written by the drawer (payer) for a date in the future. Whether a post-dated cheque may be cashed or deposited before the date written on it depends on the country. A Canadian bank, for example, is not ...

.'' Another example, in simpler terms, might be that if something antedates something else, it predates it, or is older than it. See antedated check for ante.

See also