Moving forward or making progress toward a goal; also means moving ahead in time or improving in rank or position.
From Old French 'avancer,' derived from Latin 'abante' (from before). The word originally meant 'to move forward in space,' then evolved to mean progress in any direction—time, rank, technology, knowledge.
The word 'advance' originally meant moving forward militarily—soldiers would 'advance' on the enemy—but Romans used it to describe time moving forward too ('abante' = 'from before')! Now we use it for everything from technology to salary raises, showing how a military term became a universal progress word.
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