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Are the terms precede and antecede equivalent semantically?

I sense that they are but with a stylistic difference that the latter's more formal and less commonly used.

Also, I wonder if, perhaps, antecede is less frequent than its counter part predece but instead more applied as antecedent than its what precedent is.

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  • Ngram reveals this
    – Smock
    Aug 21, 2019 at 14:06
  • @Smock That definitely answers the latter part of my question. Would you share a thought on the semantic and stylistic difference as well?
    – Konrad Viltersten
    Aug 21, 2019 at 14:40
  • Note that "precedent" has a unique meaning which I believe comes from its use as a legal term. It means "an act or instance that may be used as an example in dealing with subsequent similar circumstances." So it makes sense that "antecedent" has risen to occupy the more literal role.
    – the-baby-is-you
    Aug 28, 2019 at 4:51

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Would you share a thought on the semantic and stylistic difference as well?

Perhaps that sounds like a reasonable question. You may not realize to what extent it's a moot point.

  • www.wordcount.org shows that "antecede" is not within the top 100,000 English words.
  • https://github.com/hackerb9/gwordlist provides "All the words from Google Books, sorted by frequency", and lists antecede as number 358,824. Other words found at the level of frequency nearby 358,824 are truly foreign language words which are not English at all, or misspellings.
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