to date back

Examples

• All

• The relationship between the Catholic Church and blacks in America dates back to colonial times.

  Academic text (1993)

• The manuscripts in the library date back to the Middle Ages.

• Yeah, they date back a million years.

  Total Recall (1990)

• More seriously, records of transgender people date back thousands of years.

• The friendship between him and Gary dates back to their days in medical school.

  Fiction book (2000)

• The site of this temple dates back to the fifth century A.D., by your calendar.

  Fiction book (1996)

• The concept of clergy privilege dates back to the early years of the Roman Catholic Church.

  Academic text (1990)

• Interestingly, some parts of this house date back to the Renaissance.

  Justine Leconte officiel

• Chinese human rights values, based primarily on Confucian ideology, date back to at least 221 B.C.

  Academic text (1999)

• The use of physical currency to transact commerce has a long history, dating back at least four millennia.

  Academic text (2017)

Synonyms

G

to go back

vsto date back

287 2.3

Come from an earlier time

is about existing since a past time rather than only the initial start

P

to predate

vsto date back

41 5.8

To exist or happen before another thing

is about originating at a specific past time rather than before another event

D

to date from

vsto date back

18 3.4

To exist since a certain time in the past

is the same meaning but uses a different grammatical structure

A

to antedate

vsto date back

1 8.7

To happen before another event or to put an earlier date on something

is about existing since a past time rather than setting or changing times

F

to foredate

vsto date back

• Formal

9.1

Put an earlier day on a document than its real one

is about existing since a past time rather than setting earlier times

Surface Forms

Morphology

Etymology