AVANT THE LETTRE Galicism BY BEFORE THE LETTER . It is used for something that is anticipated, a fact, an idea, a phenomenon that occurs before it is typified French received it from Latin before litteram at the time when Latin was the universal language in Europe. Expression that exists in various languages, including Spanish and that comes from the printing press when the engravings carried the texts after them. In Italian it is considered corny to say it in French and they use avanti lettera.
