Which English word or phrase can be used to express consisely that
a particular thing or occurrence can be seen as an example or instance of a general concept, for which now there is a term,
but at the time this thing existed or the occurrence took place the term was not yet in use or that general concept was not yet recognized
?
A possible example:
According to Wikipedia, Plato was a feminist ______.”
The idea would be to express that the stated views of Plato make him a feminist (at least according to Wikipedia), but that of course neither he nor his contemporaries considered him as such, simply because the concept was introduced much later (namely by Charles Fourier in 1837).
What comes in my mind is something like “before the fact” or “before the term”, but dictionary sites do not support this use. Is there some other phrase?