[pr??'l?ps?s, -'li:ps?s]
¦ noun (plural prolepses -si:z)
1. Rhetoric the anticipation and answering of possible objections.
2. the representation of a thing as existing before it actually does or did so, as in he was a dead man when he entered.
a literary device in which a future event is prefigured.
Derivatives
proleptic adjective
Origin
ME: via late L. from Gk prolepsis, from prolambanein 'anticipate', from pro 'before' + lambanein 'take'.