prolepsis

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
prolepsis /prəʊˈlɛpsɪs, -ˈliːpsɪs/

▶noun (pl. prolepses /-siːz/)

• 1 Rhetoric the anticipation and answering of possible objections.

• 2 the representation of a thing as existing before it actually does or did so, as in he was a dead man when he entered.

  ■ a literary device in which a future event is prefigured.

– derivatives
proleptic adjective.

– origin ME: via late L. from Gk prolēpsis, from prolambanein ‘anticipate’, from pro ‘before’ + lambanein ‘take’.