prefigure
/pri:'figə/
Học thuậtThân thiện
Definition
- Verb:
- To represent or indicate something beforehand; to foreshadow: To show or suggest something that will happen in the future, often through a sign, symbol, or earlier example.
- To imagine or picture something before it happens or exists: To form a mental image or conception of something in advance.
Examples of Usage
- Verb (foreshadow):
- The early experiments with flight prefigured the development of modern aviation.
- The political tensions in the region prefigured a larger conflict.
- Verb (imagine beforehand):
- The architect prefigured the building's design in a series of detailed sketches.
- It's difficult to prefigure how this new technology will change our daily lives.
Advanced Usage
- "to prefigure something as something": To imagine or portray something in a specific way beforehand.
- The novelist prefigured the city not as a utopia, but as a complex, living organism.
- Used in theological or philosophical contexts to describe an earlier event or person seen as a prophetic type or model of a later one.
- Scholars argue that certain Old Testament events prefigure the narrative of the New Testament.
Variants and Related Words
- Prefiguration (n): The act of prefiguring; something that prefigures a later event.
- The artist's early sketches served as a prefiguration of her final masterpiece.
- Prefigurative (adj): Serving to prefigure or foreshadow.
- The prefigurative symbols in the dream were later understood as warnings.
Synonyms
- Foreshadow: To give a warning or indication of a future event.
- Foresee: To be aware of beforehand; predict.
- Anticipate: To expect or look ahead to something.
- Adumbrate: To outline vaguely or foreshadow.
Related Phrases
- "to prefigure the future": To act as an early sign or model of what is to come.
- Their community-based model of governance may prefigure the future of democracy.
Verb
- indicate by signs
- These signs bode bad news
- imagine or consider beforehand
- It wasn't as bad as I had prefigured