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advance

/ədˈvæns/

Move forward or promote progress; an early payment

From Latin ab- (from) + Latin ante (before).

verb
noun
adjective
ab-
Latin
Verified
ab
“from” or “away from”; part of the phrase meaning “from before”

from Late Latin ab ante

Late Latin
Verified
ab
Retained as the first element of ab ante

from Late Latin ab ante

ante
Latin
AI-inferred
ante
“before,” “in front of,” or “ahead”
Late Latin
AI-inferred
ante
Combined with ab to form ab ante, literally “from before”
Vulgar Latin
Verified
*abanteāre
reconstructed
Reconstructed verb meaning roughly “to move forward”

from Vulgar Latin *abanteāre

Old French
AI-inferred
avancir / avancier
“to move forward, go forward, set forward”
Combined
ab ante → *abanteāre
The elements ab “from” and ante “before” joined in Late Latin, producing the sense of moving ahead or forward.
Middle English
AI-inferred
avauncen / avancen
Borrowed through Anglo-Norman; meanings included “to promote” and “to further”
English
AI-inferred
advance
The spelling gained an unetymological d in the 16th century by association with Latin ad-; later senses included moving something forward and paying before it is due
Modern English
advance
“

A traveler moving “from before” something was, in effect, moving ahead of it: that is the compact little picture hidden in Latin ab ante. French turned this phrase into avancier, and Middle English borrowed it as avauncen around the 13th century, when “advance” could mean pushing a project forward or raising someone’s rank. Then came a spelling accident with a surprisingly long afterlife: in the 16th century, English scribes inserted the d because the word looked as if it began with Latin ad-, “toward.” It does not—the historical source is ab, “from,” plus ante, “before.” The same ante still stands at the front of antecedent and antebellum, while French avant survives in avant-garde; remember advance as “what comes from before and gets out in front.”

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