amorce

See also: amorcé

English

Pronunciation

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

Noun

amorce (plural amorces)

1. 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.

2. 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.

Anagrams

• Camero, Morace, ceroma

French

Etymology

Corruption of Old French amorse, form of amordre, a compound of mordre.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (vnv) /a.mɔʁs/

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

amorce f (plural amorces)

1. bait (used to catch fish)
2. primer (substance used to start a fire)
3. (figuratively) bait
4. (biology) primer (strand)

Verb

amorce

1. inflection of amorcer:
   1. first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
   2. second-person singular imperative

Further reading

• “amorce”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.