prefigurative
- adjective
- /ˌpriːˈfɪɡərətɪv/
- Literature
- The Rastafari and GUMs in general are exemplars of prefigurative movement practices.
Examples
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Obviously, I find animal cruelty abhorrent and am fully aware that the animals we choose to eat or keep as pets are determined by cultural convention, but prefigurative utopianism is pointless.
Blog text (34) -
On the notion of "prefigurative politics," see Sitrin (2004) and Graeber (2002).
Academic text (2008) -
Through their deaths, Jicotencal and Teutila emerge from the romance as a prefigurative polis.
Academic text (2018) -
34 ACE and other organizations recognize these "prefigurative politics" and are shaping not only their mission statements and programs but their entire organizations around this in terms of staffing, strategy, external relations, and image.
Academic text (2005) -
It was for this reason that Lenin, as well as Marx, argued against prefigurative utopianism: the idea that one must behave as if he already lived in a perfect society, a Kantian kingdom of ends.
Blog text (34) -
The kind of relationship building that anarchists have been fairly good at lately is necessary from the standpoint of building the culture that we need, both as an obvious politically prefigurative act and also from a purely material standpoint (we need the food, shelter, time, etc. that it affords us).
Blog text (12) -
The artist's use of colors in the painting was prefigurative, hinting at the emotions the viewer would feel before fully experiencing the piece.
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In her speech, she employed prefigurative language to suggest the ideals of a future society that she wanted to inspire in her audience.
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The novel's themes were prefigurative, symbolically foreshadowing the major conflicts that would arise in the following chapters.
Synonyms
Saying or showing what will happen in the future, often as if from a spiritual source
Knowing about things before they happen
A strong sign that something important or bad will happen
To know about an event before it happens
A sign that warns of something bad that may happen
A sign that something bad may happen
Saying that something will happen in the future, often by a religious person
Hinting in an unclear way at something that will happen
Showing or suggesting something that will happen later
Relating to ways people try to tell the future
How Prophetic
Surface Forms
Morphology
prefigurative = prefigure (semi-transparent) = pre + figur + ative
For a learner who knows the verb 'prefigure', the adjective meaning 'having the quality of prefiguring' is a straightforward suffixal formation.
Etymology
Prefigurative comes from the parts pre- meaning 'before' and figure meaning 'shape' or 'form', the same root you see in the common word figure. So something prefigurative gives a small 'sign' or 'shape' of what will come later, which is why it means hinting at or suggesting the future.