foresignal

English

Alternative forms

• fore-signal

Etymology

From fore- +‎ signal.

Noun

foresignal (plural foresignals)

1. A signal made or given in advance; a foresign
   • 1968, George Alexander Talland, Human aging and behavior: recent advances in research and theory:

     Sequential redundancy may be introduced into discrete-response tasks by varying the amount of information conveyed by a foresignal about the reaction signal that is to follow it.

   • 2000, David Cressy, Travesties and Transgressions in Tudor and Stuart England:

     [...] they could be seen as portents or prognostications, looking forward to some earthly catastrophe, or as precursors of the latter days, foresignals of the end of the world.

   • 2012, Tom Lubbock, Until Further Notice, I Am Alive:

     I later learn this fore-signal is called an aura, and that what I am experiencing is a form of epilepsy, a small 'focal' fit, affecting a speech centre.

Verb

foresignal (third-person singular simple present foresignals, present participle foresignaling or foresignalling, simple past and past participle foresignaled or foresignalled)

1. (transitive, rare) To signal ahead of time
   • 1998, Roger F. Cook, By the Rivers of Babylon: Heinrich Heine's Late Songs and Reflections:

     For even if he ends his history without discussing any particulars of Hegel's work, the Hegelian dialectic of history is the structuring principle behind the work as a whole and the logical element of necessity that foresignals the death of the old God.