Emily Dickinson Lexicon

PRE-COG-NI'TION, n. [L. præ, before, and cognitio, knowledge.]

1. Previous knowledge; antecedent examination. – Fotherby.
2. In Scots law, an examination of witnesses to a criminal act, before a judge, justice of the peace or sherif, before the prosecution of the offender, in order to know whether there is ground of trial, and to enable the prosecutor to set forth the facts in the libel. Encyc.