ANCIENT or ANTIENT, old or in olden times. "Ancient history" is distinguished from mediaeval and modern, generally as meaning before the fall of the Western Roman empire. "The Ancient of days" is a Biblical phrase for God. In the London Inns of Court the senior barristers used to be called "ancients." From the 16th to the 18th century the word was also used, by confusion with "ensign," i.e., standard-bearer, for that military title (cf. Shakespeare's "ancient Pistol"). (See also ANCIENT LIGHTS ; DEMESNE.)