Words & WritingGreek → English
Prolepsis
/proʊˈlɛpsɪs/noun
Treating a future event as already accomplished, or answering an objection before it is raised.
The Greek roots
πρό
pró
before, in advance
λαμβάνω
lambánō
to take, grasp
Literally: “a taking beforehand”
The story of the word
Epicurus used prolepsis for the rough general idea a mind forms before any argument begins, the mental picture of "horse" that lets you recognise one. Rhetoric took the word for pre-empting a counterargument, and grammar for the trick of applying a description too early: "he laid the corpse low" while the man is still alive. Narrative theorists now use it for a flash-forward.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → English
- First recorded
- 16th century
Same family
analepsisepilepsysyllablecatalepsy
In a sentence
The opening chapter's prolepsis shows the trial before the crime.
She built a prolepsis into the proposal, answering the finance objection on page two.