prefigure

See also: préfiguré, préfigure, and prefiguré

English

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pɹiːfɪɡjɚ/

Verb

prefigure (third-person singular simple present prefigures, present participle prefiguring, simple past and past participle prefigured)

1. (often in a Biblical context) To show or suggest ahead of time; to represent beforehand.
   • 2018 September 29, Roger Burrows, “On Neoreaction”, in The Sociological Review Magazine‎^[1]:

     Hong Kong, Singapore and Shanghai, all prefigure NRx urban futures.

2. To predict or foresee.

Synonyms

• presage
• portend
• forereckon
• foreshadow
• announce

Derived terms

• prefigurement

Translations

show ahead of time

• Bulgarian: загатвам предварително (zagatvam predvaritelno)
• French: préfigurer (fr)

Noun

prefigure (plural prefigures)

1. That which prefigures or appears to predict; a harbinger.
   • 2005, Leerom Medovoi, Rebels: Youth and the Cold War Origins of Identity, page 293:

     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.

   • 2012, C. S. Shapley, Studies in French Poetry of the Fifteenth Century, page 5:

     In his influential commentary (the Moralia) Gregory the Great interpreted the protagonist typologically as a prefigure of Christ and of the Church persecuted.

Spanish

Verb

prefigure

1. inflection of prefigurar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative