A time period that comes before something else; a preliminary or preceding stage of time.
From 'fore-' (before) and 'period' (from Latin 'periodus,' meaning a cycle or length of time). This combines ideas of sequence and time to describe what happens first.
Psychologists studying reaction time discovered that there's a measurable 'foreperiod'—the interval before a stimulus appears—and your brain actually prepares itself during this waiting time, which is why suspense feels so intense.
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