| prolepsis |
| Definition: A figure of speech where a future event is treated as if it were in the past. |
| Example: I'm dead! Get away while you still can! |
| Etymology: The word means "anticipation" in Greek. |
| Oxford English Dictionary: Its first citation is from 1578: "The answer is easy to be made, if we grant that the figure Prolepsis is in the speech of Moses [see Gen. xi. 31, xii. 1]." (Timme Caluine on Gen. 264) |