antepast

[ an-ti-past ]

noun

, Archaic.

1. a foretaste; appetizer.

Word History and Origins

Origin of antepast¹

1580–90; ante- + Latin pāstus food (originally past participle of pāscere to feed), equivalent to pās- feed + -tus past participle suffix

Example Sentences

The place, the day, the multitude, the power of sympathy, all conspire to give effect to truth, and to rouse them up to labor for God, for their species, for eternity: all combine to render the house of God "the gate of heaven," the image of heaven, and a precious antepast of the enjoyments of heaven!

From Project Gutenberg

Previous view or impression of what is to happen; instinctive prevision; foretaste; antepast; as, the anticipation of the joys of heaven.

From Project Gutenberg

The word in which he speaks to them is their sweetest music; the closet in which they meet with him is their highest Pisgah; the table at which he feeds them is the very antepast of heaven.

From Project Gutenberg

Is not the knowledge now possessed by the Saints, glorious though it be, but a foretaste, the antepast of a greater feast of knowledge yet to follow?

From Project Gutenberg

The mildness of the sentence was an antepast of a more enlarged liberty under the new form of government.

From Project Gutenberg