While I absolutely agree with you, I believe you were looking to use the word precedent.
EDIT: As an aside I think it reminded me too much of the concept of precedence in maths, so the brain-burp was probably sourced from there.
Some of the smartest people I know frequently mis-grammar a sentence every now and then. Sometimes even frequently.
A language is a tool for conveying ideas. If a given paragraph conveys the same mental result for each reader, then it doesn't matter if any given word is wrong; the tool has done its task. I wish more people would realize this and stop condemning frivolous mistakes...