amorce

plural amorces

1. A hint about the future; an instance of foreshadowing.

   The word mourning is such an amorce, which prefigures the novel's denouement and also suggests that Jean's rejection of their daughter is tantamount to "killing" her.

   1994, Irène Assiba d' Almeida, Francophone African Women Writers, →ISBN, page 103

   2 more examples

   The anti-Americanism — or anti-Carterism, because Schmidt is basically pro-American — was in a way worrying, although if the dollar crisis is such an amorce for economic and monetary union, I am prepared, up to a point, to go along with it.

   1989, Roy Jenkins, European Diary: 1977-1981, page 225

   Penelope's reference to her future awareness of this grave mistake is half proleptic and half what Genette terms an amorce: the establishment of anticipation for the development of the plot through hints about future events.

   2012, Alice Bennett, Afterlife and Narrative in Contemporary Fiction, →ISBN, page 93

2. A percussion cap or detonator.

   In her hand she'd held a silver pistol which she'd pointed at Aldous's head and fired five times, five sharp cracks and some blue smoke from the amorces smelling of fireworks.

   2002, Gerard Woodward, August, →ISBN, page 37

   2 more examples

   In March Messrs. Philip Morris & Co., Ltd., imported without a licence a consignment of 500 imitation cigarette cases, each containing a roll of amorces arranged in such a manner that an amorce was fired each time the case was opened, and the goods were placed under dentention by the Customs.

   1912, Great Britain Home Office, Explosives Act, 1875, page 12

   Cyrus Harding would certainly have been able to fabricate an amorce. In default of fulminate, he could easily obtain a substance similar to gun-cotton, since he had azotic acid at his disposal.

   1918, Jules Verne, The Mysterious Island