prefigure

Etymology

From Middle English prefiguren, from Latin praefigurare, from figurare (“to shape, picture”).

verb

1. To show or suggest ahead of time; to represent beforehand (often used in a Biblical context).
2. To predict or foresee.

noun

1. That which prefigures or appears to predict; a harbinger.
   Quite different is the way in which the tomboy girled the rebel narrative. In recent years, queer theorists have taken a deep interest in the tomboy as a prefigure for the butch dyke. 2005, Leerom Medovoi, Rebels: Youth and the Cold War Origins of Identity, page 293
   In his influential commentary (the Moralia) Gregory the Great interpreted the protagonist typologically as a prefigure of Christ and of the Church persecuted. 2012, C. S. Shapley, Studies in French Poetry of the Fifteenth Century, page 5