amorce

See also: amorcé

English

Pronunciation

(General American) IPA^(key): /əˈmoɹs/
(Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /əˈmɔːs/

Noun

amorce (plural amorces)

A hint about the future; an instance of foreshadowing.
- 1989, Roy Jenkins, European Diary: 1977-1981, page 225:
  The anti-Americanism — or anti-Carterism, because Schmidt is basically pro-American — was in a way worrying, although if the dollar crisis is such an amorce for economic and monetary union, I am prepared, up to a point, to go along with it.
- 1994, Irène Assiba d' Almeida, Francophone African Women Writers, →ISBN, page 103:
  The word mourning is such an amorce, which prefigures the novel's denouement and also suggests that Jean's rejection of their daughter is tantamount to "killing" her.
- 2012, Alice Bennett, Afterlife and Narrative in Contemporary Fiction, →ISBN, page 93:
  Penelope's reference to her future awareness of this grave mistake is half proleptic and half what Genette terms an amorce: the establishment of anticipation for the development of the plot through hints about future events.
A percussion cap or detonator.
- 1912, Great Britain Home Office, Explosives Act, 1875, page 12:
  In March Messrs. Philip Morris & Co., Ltd., imported without a licence a consignment of 500 imitation cigarette cases, each containing a roll of amorces arranged in such a manner that an amorce was fired each time the case was opened, and the goods were placed under dentention by the Customs.
- 1918, Jules Verne, The Mysterious Island:
  Cyrus Harding would certainly have been able to fabricate an amorce. In default of fulminate, he could easily obtain a substance similar to gun-cotton, since he had azotic acid at his disposal.
- 2002, Gerard Woodward, August, →ISBN, page 37:
  In her hand she'd held a silver pistol which she'd pointed at Aldous's head and fired five times, five sharp cracks and some blue smoke from the amorces smelling of fireworks.