1. Writers, artists, or thinkers of the late 18th century who anticipated or prepared the way for Romanticism, emphasizing emotion, nature, and individualism before the full Romantic movement.
Usage: plural form; often used in literary and historical contexts; refers to figures active roughly 1750–1800

Examples

• The preromantics laid the groundwork for the Romantic movement by celebrating emotion and nature.
• Scholars often study the preromantics to understand the transition from Enlightenment to Romanticism.
• Figures like Rousseau and Young are considered important preromantics in European literature.
• The poetry of the preromantics frequently explored themes of melancholy and the sublime.
• Many preromantics rejected strict classical forms in favor of more expressive styles.
• The influence of the preromantics can be seen in the works of later Romantic poets like Wordsworth and Keats.