prefigure

verb
/pɹiːfɪɡjɚ/

Etymology

From Middle English prefiguren, from Latin praefigurare, from figurare (“to shape, picture”).

  1. derived from praefigurare
  2. inherited from prefiguren

Definitions

  1. To show or suggest ahead of time

    To show or suggest ahead of time; to represent beforehand.

    • Hong Kong, Singapore and Shanghai, all prefigure NRx urban futures.
  2. To predict or foresee.

  3. That which prefigures or appears to predict

    That which prefigures or appears to predict; a harbinger.

    • Quite different is the way in which the tomboy girled the rebel narrative. In recent years, queer theorists have taken a deep interest in the tomboy as a prefigure for the butch dyke.
    • In his influential commentary (the Moralia) Gregory the Great interpreted the protagonist typologically as a prefigure of Christ and of the Church persecuted.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

A definitional loop anchored at prefigure. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.

01prefigure02harbinger03foretells04foretell05prophesy06foreshow

A definitional loop anchored at prefigure. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.

6 hops · closes at prefigure

curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA