Dictionary

prefiguration en · NOUN

Etymology

From Late Latin praefigurationem, nominative form of praefiguratio.

Meanings

1. (countable, uncountable) A vague representation or suggestion of something before it has happened or been accomplished; something that prefigures.
   • This is a kind of early, obscure prefiguration of Marx's later theory of 'commodity fetishism'. 1978 [1976], Leszek Kołakowski, translated by P[aul] S[teven] Falla, Main Currents of Marxism, volume I: The Founders, Oxford: Clarendon Press, translation of Główne nurty marksizmu: powstanie (in Polish), →ISBN, →OCLC, page 103:
   • Those ceremonies were prefigurations of Christ to come : these traditions are defigurations and deformations of Christ exhibited 1628, Joseph Hall, Christian Liberty Laid Forth:

Forms