Preposition
prior to
(formal) before, previous to.
Prior to any questioning, the person must be warned that he has a right to remain silent, that any statement he does make may be used as evidence against him and that he has a right to the presence of an attorney, either retained or appointed. Earl Warren
Common sense is actually nothing more than a deposit of prejudices laid down in the mind prior to the age of eighteen. Albert Einstein
Reality prior to my language exists as an unthinkable thought.... life precedes love, bodily matter precedes the body, and one day in its turn language shall have preceded possession of silence. Clarice Lispector
Quality is a direct experience independent of and prior to intellectual abstractions. Robert M. Pirsig
Much early alchemy seems to have been adventure. You heated and mixed and burnt and pounded and to see what would happen. An adventure might suggest an hypothesis that can subsequently be tested, but adventure is prior to theory. Ian Hacking
Prior to penicillin and medical research, death was an everyday occurrence. It was intimate. Katherine Dunn