'antefuture' originates from the Latin prefix 'ante-' meaning 'before' combined with the English word 'future', which ultimately comes from Latin 'futurus'.

'future' passed from Latin 'futurus' into Old French 'futur' and then into Middle and Modern English as 'future'; the compound 'antefuture' is a modern coinage formed by adding the prefix 'ante-' to 'future' in linguistic description.

The component parts originally meant 'before' and 'that which is to be', and the compound was later used specifically to name the tense expressing anteriority relative to a future time (i.e., the future perfect).