to date from
18
3.4
- phrasal verb
- /deɪt frʌm/
:
datar de
- This manuscript, written in Latin, dates from the 12th century.
- date from the sixteenth century
- date from this period
- date from the early
Examples
-
The most recent Boy's Life in the magazine rack dates from 1974.
Fiction book (1996) -
In this form, the structure dates from the third to the fifth centuries A.D.
Academic text (2008) -
It's the foundation of modern civil engineering, though its usage, of course, dates from the Bronze Age.
-
It's a very experienced boat, dating from the days when everyone was off searching for unknown islands.
Fiction book (1999) -
Now, we have certain artifacts here which we date from 1950 to 2000.
-
All this seems to date from that day two months ago 'when Midwich was cut off from the rest of the world.'
-
Modest music software developments date from the late 1960s to the early 1970s.
Academic text (1992) -
This riding style dates from the '80s.
-
The modern history of these fisheries dates from 1958 until the present.
Academic text (1993) -
The current phase in Salvadoran politics dates from the military coup.
Academic text (1991)
Synonyms
287
2.3
Come from an earlier time
95
3.0
To come from an earlier time
How Far Back
Surface Forms
Morphology
The sense 'to have existed since' is directly derivable from combining 'date' (a point in time/origin) with 'from' (marking origin or starting point). This compositional meaning is common cross-linguistically and follows regular English patterns, so a B1 learner who knows both words can reasonably infer the MWE's meaning.
Etymology
The phrasal verb date from comes from the simple idea of writing a date on an object to show it came from a certain time. So when a book or building is marked with a date, we know it has existed since that time, and date from means 'to have existed since'.