prolepsis

—proleptic /proh lep"tik/, proleptical, adj. —proleptically, adv.

/proh lep"sis/, n., pl. prolepses /-seez/.

1. Rhet. the anticipation of possible objections in order to answer them in advance.

2. 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.

3. the use of a descriptive word in anticipation of its becoming applicable.

4. a fundamental conception or assumption in Epicureanism or Stoicism arising spontaneously in the mind without conscious reflection; thought provoked by sense perception.

5. Pathol. the return of an attack of a periodic disease or of a paroxysm before the expected time or at progressively shorter intervals.

[1570-80; < LL prolepsis < Gk prólepsis anticipation, preconception, equiv. to prolep- (verbid s. of prolambánein to anticipate (pro- PRO-² + lambánein to take)) + -sis -SIS]

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▪ literature

      a figure of speech in which a future act or development is represented as if already accomplished or existing. The following lines from John Keats's “Isabella” (1820), for example, proleptically anticipate the assassination of a living character:

So the two brothers and their murdered man

Rode past fair Florence

      The word may also refer to the anticipation of objections to an argument, a tactic aimed at weakening the force of such objections.

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