Adjacent Words

Prolepsis definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

PROLEP'SIS
PROLEP'SY, n. [Gr. to take.]
1. Anticipation; a figure in rhetoric by which objections are anticipated or prevented.
2. An error in chronology, when an event is dated before the actual time; an anachronism.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: anticipating and answering objections in advance

Merriam Webster's

noun (plural prolepses) Etymology: Greek prol?psis, from prolambanein to take beforehand, from pro- before + lambanein to take — more at latch Date: 1578 anticipation: as a. the representation or assumption of a future act or development as if presently existing or accomplished b. the application of an adjective to a noun in anticipation of the result of the action of the verb (as in “while yon slow oxen turn the furrowed plain”) • proleptic adjective • proleptically adverb

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. (pl. prolepses) 1 the anticipation and answering of possible objections in rhetorical speech. 2 anticipation. 3 the representation of a thing as existing before it actually does or did so, as in he was a dead man when he entered. 4 Gram. the anticipatory use of adjectives, as in paint the town red. Derivatives: proleptic adj. Etymology: LL f. Gk prolepsis f. prolambano anticipate (as PRO-(2), lambano take)

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Prolepsis Pro*lep"sis, n. [L., fr. Gr. ?, from ? to take beforehand; ? before + ? to take.] 1. (Rhet.) (a) A figure by which objections are anticipated or prevented. --Abp. Bramhall. (b) A necessary truth or assumption; a first or assumed principle. 2. (Chron.) An error in chronology, consisting in an event being dated before the actual time. 3. (Gram.) The application of an adjective to a noun in anticipation, or to denote the result, of the action of the verb; as, to strike one dumb.