preconstitute

P3R1E1C3O1N1S1T1I1T1U1T1E1

verb

To constitute or establish beforehand.

Scrabble 17

Meanings

verbpreconstitute (third-person singular simple present preconstitutes, present participle preconstituting, simple past and past participle preconstituted)

present singular third person preconstitutes · participle present preconstituting · participle past preconstituted · past preconstituted

  1. transitiveTo constitute or establish beforehand.
    2 more examples

    Too often writing—in the broadest sense—is treated as a communicational medium where the subjects of that communication are constituted prior to the writing, where the objects of that communication are also constituted prior to that writing, and where the task of writing is seen as transparently mediating between already pregiven subjects, pregiven objects, and a preconstituted mise en scène.

    2015, “Staging the Politics of Difference: Homi Bhabha's Critical Literacy, Gary A. Olson and Lynn Worsham.”, in Gary A. Olson, Lynn Worsham, Henry A. Giroux, editors, Politics of Possibility: Encountering the Radical Imagination, page 133

    Husserl's ‘now’ moment is a ‘passive’ synthesis rather than ‘active’, the ego is the recipient, it does not actively take part. But in seeing the possibility of seizing an opportunity in a moment, we begin to mark the moment as decisive, it is transformed into something which can shape one's past and future. We might say it brings the ability to ‘preconstitute’ and ‘precapitulate’¹³ our future, if we are able to think of it as extending itself out from the ordinary temporal reach of our notions of time.

    2016 April 8, Koral Ward, Augenblick: The Concept of the 'Decisive Moment' in 19th- and 20th-Century Western Philosophy, reprint edition, Routledge, →ISBN

Origin

Cite this entry
APA

preconstitute. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/preconstitute

MLA

“preconstitute.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/preconstitute. Accessed November 2, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “preconstitute,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/preconstitute.

Source: preconstitute on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.