parusia means A figure of speech by which the present tense is used instead of the past or the future, as in the animated narration of past events or the prediction of future ones. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 87 out of 100.
Why “parusia” is a great word
PARUSIA — [Noun] A rhetorical figure in which the present tense is used for past or future events to create gripping immediacy. From Ancient Greek παρουσία (parousía, "presence"). Unlike prolepsis, which broadly claims the future as present, or the historical present, which vivifies only the past, parusia is the specific, conscious transposition of tense for potency. It is Caesar crossing the Rubicon as you read, the prophet declaring a kingdom that already is, the lover’s promise that “I come for you tomorrow”—a minor syntactical revolt against the tyranny of chronology, conjuring a phantom now where all time converges.
noun
- A figure of speech by which the present tense is used instead of the past or the future, as in the animated narration of past events or the prediction of future ones.“The parusia has a twofold meaning, a spiritual and an historical, in St. John. Thus in John xiv. 18, 19 the coming Advent is resolved into […] an event already present: […]”