prolepsis

noun prolepses

1. countable, rhetoric, uncountable The assignment of something to a period of time that precedes it.
2. countable, rhetoric, uncountable The anticipation of an objection to an argument. Prolepsis makes objections; then replies; And wisely thus anticipates surprise.

   Similar: procatalepsis, prebuttal

3. countable, rhetoric, uncountable A construction that consists of placing an element in a syntactic unit before that to which it would logically correspond.
4. countable, uncountable A so-called "preconception", i.e., a pre-theoretical notion which can lead to true knowledge of the world. 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. countable, uncountable 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. countable, uncountable The practice of placing information about the ending of a story near the beginning, as a literary device. […] [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

Similar: left dislocation, cataphora, anachronism, flashforward, foreshadowing · Opposite: syllepsis