The preceding-sibling Axis

• The preceding-sibling axis selects elements that precede the context node in the same parent element counting backwards from the context node.

• For example,

  /descendant::BORN[position()=2]/preceding-sibling::*[position()=1]

  selects Elodie Bellau's NAME element, <NAME>Elodie Bellau</NAME>.

• There's no abbreviation for the preceding-sibling axis.