Other forms: antes
The ante is the stake each player puts in before a hand begins. Pay the ante, an ante of two, up the ante.
It exists to make sure there is something worth playing for in every hand, so that nobody can simply wait forever. Up the ante has escaped into general use and means to raise what is at stake in any contest. The Latin means before.
1nounanteThe stake each player puts in before a hand begins.
“Each player put a chip in the middle as the ante before the cards were dealt.”
ante is a stake.
Latin ante means before, since the stake is paid before the cards are dealt. The poker use is American.
Proto-Indo-European
*h₂ent-
Latin
ante — before
English, today
ante
Latin ante (“before”). a doublet of and.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA