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Dictionary

Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.

procatalepsis en · NOUN

Pronunciation

  • /ˌpɹəʊkætəˈlɛpsɪs/
  • (Southern-England) audio

Etymology

From Latin procatalepsis (“anticipating and answering an objection”), from Ancient Greek προκατάληψις (prokatálēpsis, “seizing in advance”).

Meanings

  1. (rhetoric) A rhetorical exercise in which the speaker raises an objection to his own argument and then immediately answers it, in an attempt to strengthen the argument by dealing with possible counter-arguments.
  2. (rhetoric) Rebuttal of anticipated objections.
    • This long sequence skilfully deploys the rhetorical tropes of procatalepsis and concessio, pre-emption and concession: that is, they concede the accuracy of certain classic attacks on communism, but in ways that redound on their opponents. 2022, China Miéville, chapter 3, in A Spectre, Haunting: On the Communist Manifesto, →OCLC:
  3. Left dislocation.

Relateds

procataleptic · straw man · inb4

Synonyms

preemption · prebuttal · prolepsis