To imagine, suggest, or indicate something before it actually happens; to prefigure or foreshadow.
From 'fore-' (before) and 'figure' (to form an image or represent). The term developed to describe the act of depicting something in advance, blending Old English and Latin roots.
Writers use this when a character's action early in a story hints at what's coming—it's literary foreshadowing in formal, older English, showing how language evolves to describe artistic technique.
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