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Meaning of prolepsis in English:

prolepsis

Pronunciation /prə(ʊ)ˈlɛpsɪs/

nounprolepses/prəʊˈlɛpsiːz/

mass nounRhetoric

  • 1The anticipation and answering of possible objections in rhetorical speech.

    ‘Drexler's book Engines of Creation is an extraordinary exercise in prolepsis: he meticulously refutes every technical objection he can anticipate.’
    • ‘For Gilio, prolepsis was a ‘figure,’ a rhetorical device employed to augment the beauty of the work.’
    expectation, prediction, forecast

  • 2The representation of a thing as existing before it actually does or did so, as in he was a dead man when he entered.

    Compare with analepsis

    • ‘the destruction of the Vendôme Column and his part in it are foreshadowed in moments of haunting prolepsis’

Origin

Late Middle English (as a term in rhetoric): via late Latin from Greek prolēpsis, from prolambanein ‘anticipate’, from pro ‘before’ + lambanein ‘take’.