prolepsis
[proh-lep-sis]
- Rhetoric. the anticipation of possible objections in order to answer them in advance.
- the assigning of a person, event, etc., to a period earlier than the actual one; the representation of something in the future as if it already existed or had occurred; prochronism.
- the use of a descriptive word in anticipation of its becoming applicable.
- a fundamental conception or assumption in Epicureanism or Stoicism arising spontaneously in the mind without conscious reflection; thought provoked by sense perception.
- Pathology. the return of an attack of a periodic disease or of a paroxysm before the expected time or at progressively shorter intervals.
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Origin of prolepsis
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for prolepsis
Historical Examples
An instance of prolepsis, or "anticipation" in the use of a word.
The Lady of the LakeSir Walter Scott
It was a prolepsis of the soul, reaching upward towards its source and goal.
Christianity and Greek PhilosophyBenjamin Franklin Cocker
prolepsis
- a rhetorical device by which objections are anticipated and answered in advance
- use of a word after a verb in anticipation of its becoming applicable through the action of the verb, as flat in hammer it flat
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Word Origin
C16: via Late Latin from Greek: anticipation, from prolambanein to anticipate, from pro- ² + lambanein to take
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for prolepsis
n.
1570s, "the taking of something anticipated as already done or existing," from Latin prolepsis, from Greek prolepsis "an anticipating," literally "a taking beforehand," from prolambanein "to take before," from pro- "before" (see pro-) + lambanein "to take" (see analemma). Related: Proleptic; proleptical; proleptically.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
prolepsis
(prō-lĕp′sĭs)- The return of paroxysms of a recurrent disease at intervals that progressively become shorter.
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The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.