prefigure

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English

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /pɹiːfɪɡjɚ/
  • Audio (US):(file)

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

Synonyms

Derived terms

Translations

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