English

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Etymology

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

Pronunciation

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Verb

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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[1]:
      Hong Kong, Singapore and Shanghai, all prefigure NRx urban futures.
  2. To predict or foresee.

Synonyms

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Derived terms

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Translations

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Noun

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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

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Verb

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prefigure

  1. inflection of prefigurar:
    1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
    2. third-person singular imperative