precursorismn.
/prᵻˈkəːsərɪz(ə)m/, /priːˈkəːsərɪz(ə)m/, U.S. /ˌpriˈkərsəˌrɪz(ə)m/, /ˈpriˌkərsəˌrɪz(ə)m/ΚΠ
1839 John Bull 29 Apr. 199/1 Otherwise what need would there be for ‘Precursorism’ and ‘Repeal’?
1839 Times 17 Sept. 4/2 Precursorism has turned out to be utterly hopeless.
1846 Times 24 July 8/5 At present Mr. Lawless halts midway between Presursorism and Repeal.
2. The interpretation of history in terms of precursors.
ΚΠ
1971 J. Womack in Investigaciones Contemporáneas sobre Historia de México 487 One [mistake] is to treat episodes happening at one moment in Mexico's past as no more than preparation for other episodes happening at a later moment in the country's past... This is the mistake of ‘precursorism’.
1977 Hist. Teacher 10 530 To avoid..the dangers of precursorism, that is, of looking in the past simply for the origins of what occurred later.
1988 Isis 79 247 The field has also had its share of devotees of precursorism, whose concern is to find proto-Copernican or proto-Harveyan or other protomodern ideas in the medieval literature.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2007; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1839