PROLEPSIS

prolepsis

(noun) anticipating and answering objections in advance

Source: WordNet® 3.1


Etymology

Noun

prolepsis (countable and uncountable, plural prolepses)

(rhetoric) The assignment of something to a period of time that precedes it.

(logic) The anticipation of an objection to an argument.

(grammar, rhetoric) A construction that consists of placing an element in a syntactic unit before that to which it would logically correspond.

(philosophy, epistemology) A so-called "preconception", i.e. a pre-theoretical notion which can lead to true knowledge of the world.

(botany) Growth in which lateral branches develop from a lateral meristem, after the formation of a bud or following a period of dormancy, when the lateral meristem is split from a terminal meristem.

(authorship) The practice of placing information about the ending of a story near the beginning, as a literary device.

Synonyms

• (representation of something that has occurred before its time): anachronism, flashforward, foreshadowing

• (anticipation of objection to an argument): procatalepsis

• (grammar, rhetoric): left dislocation

Antonyms

• (botany): syllepsis

Source: Wiktionary


Pro*lep"sis, n. Etym: [L., fr. Gr.

1. (Rhet.) (a) A figure by which objections are anticipated or prevented. Abp. Bramhall. (b) A necessary truth or assumption; a first or assumed principle.

2. (Chron.)

Definition: An error in chronology, consisting in an event being dated before the actual time.

3. (Gram.)

Definition: The application of an adjective to a noun in anticipation, or to denote the result, of the action of the verb; as, to strike one dumb.

Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition



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Word of the Day

21 May 2024

FUDGE

(verb) tamper, with the purpose of deception; “Fudge the figures”; “cook the books”; “falsify the data”


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Coffee Trivia

Some 16th-century Italian clergymen tried to ban coffee because they believed it to be “satanic.” However, Pope Clement VII loved coffee so much that he lifted the ban and had coffee baptized in 1600.

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