The neologism emerged in academic circles in the early 2010s, primarily within interdisciplinary seminars that examined narrative structure, historical memory, and speculative futures. It was first recorded in a 2012 paper presented at the International Conference on Temporal Cognition, where the author argued that separating “future‑oriented” and “past‑oriented” analyses ignored the ways in which each informs the other.
Foreandaft is typically analyzed along three dimensions: cognitive, linguistic, and sociocultural. Cognitively, it refers to the mental models that simultaneously project future scenarios while integrating past experiences. Linguistically, it manifests in textual strategies that juxtapose retrospective and anticipatory clauses, often using tense‑blending or temporal metaphors. Socioculturally, the concept highlights practices—such as heritage festivals that incorporate futuristic technology or urban planning that embeds historical motifs in new developments—that embody a blended temporal identity.
Researchers have applied foreandaft to fields ranging from narrative theory, where it informs the study of non‑linear storytelling, to environmental policy, where it supports frameworks that link climate‑change mitigation with historical land‑use patterns. In artistic contexts, the term describes works that fuse retro aesthetics with forward‑looking innovation, exemplified by retro‑futurist design and speculative fiction that revisits past eras through speculative lenses.