1) Antecedency 2) Anteriority 3) Earliness 4) Precedence 5) Precedency 6) Preceding in time 7) Priority 8) The act of going before 1) Antecedency 2) Precedence 3) Priority 
• (n.) An apparent motion of a planet toward the west; retrogradation. • (n.) The act or state of going before in time; precedence.
(from the article `valley`) ...Rather than flowing around domes or plunging folds, the rivers carved canyons into what appears to be paths of greatest resistance. One theory ...
An`te·ced'ence noun 1. The act or state of going before in time; precedence. H. Spenser. 2. (Astron.) An apparent motion of a planet toward the west; retrogradation. 
the act of going before; precedence. · priority. · (of a planet) apparent retrograde motion.