prolepsis

From Latin prolepsis, from Ancient Greek πρόληψις (prólēpsis, “preconception, anticipation”), from προλαμβάνω (prolambánō, “take beforehand, anticipate”).

• IPA^(key): /pɹoʊˈlɛpsɪs/

prolepsis (countable and uncountable, plural prolepses)

1. (rhetoric) The assignment of something to a period of time that precedes it.
2. (rhetoric) The anticipation of an objection to an argument.
   • 1835, L[arret] Langley, “[Rhetorical Figures.] Prolepsis.”, in A Manual of the Figures of Rhetoric, […], Doncaster, South Yorkshire: […] C. White, […], →OCLC, page 59:

     Prolepsis makes objections; then replies;
     And wisely thus anticipates surprise.

3. (grammar, rhetoric) A construction that consists of placing an element in a syntactic unit before that to which it would logically correspond.
4. (philosophy, epistemology) A so-called "preconception", i.e., a pre-theoretical notion which can lead to true knowledge of the world.
   • 2017, Attila Németh, Epicurus on the Self, page 42:

     Point (1) seems to imply that one may have a false judgement because of a mismatch between different criteria for truth. For example, my sensation is paired with a prolepsis of a horse, therefore I make an assertion that ‘there is a horse’, which upon further inspection may turn out to be a cow.

5. (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.
6. (narratology) The practice of placing information about the ending of a story near the beginning, as a literary device.
   • a. 1662 (date written), Thomas Fuller, “Shrop-shire”, in The History of the Worthies of England, London: […] J[ohn] G[rismond,] W[illiam] L[eybourne] and W[illiam] G[odbid], published 1662, →OCLC, page 3:

     […] [Edmund] Plovvden being of the Romiſh perſvvaſion, ſome Setters trapanned him (pardon the prolepſis) to hear Maſſe: But aftervvards Plovvden underſtanding, that the pretender to Officiate vvas no Prieſt, but a meer Lay-man (on deſigne to make a diſcovering) Oh! The caſe is altered quoth Plovvden: No Priest, no Maſſe.

• (anticipation of objection to an argument): procatalepsis, prebuttal
• (grammar, rhetoric): left dislocation, cataphora
• (narratology): anachronism, flashforward, foreshadowing

• (botany) syllepsis

• proleptic

• -lepsy
• syllepsis

• Silva Rhetoricae

• IPA^(key): /pɾoˈlebsis/ [pɾoˈleβ̞.sis]
• Rhymes: -ebsis
• Syllabification: pro‧lep‧sis

prolepsis f (plural prolepsis)

1. prolepsis

• “prolepsis”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 10 December 2024