||Pro*lep"sis (?), n. [L., fr. Gr. &?;, from &?; to take beforehand; &?; before + &?; to take.]

1. (Rhet.) (a) A figure by which objections are anticipated or prevented. Abp. Bramhall. (b) A necessary truth or assumption; a first or assumed principle.

2. (Chron.) An error in chronology, consisting in an event being dated before the actual time.

3. (Gram.) The application of an adjective to a noun in anticipation, or to denote the result, of the action of the verb; as, to strike one dumb.

• the assignment of something to a period of time that preceeds it.
  
• the representation of something having had ocurred before its time.
        I'm a dead man.