I was reminded of this word when I found the
Webster 1913 node for
prediscover in the random nodes. At first, it didn't make sense ... how can you discover something after its been prediscovered?
I saw the word postdiction used in a scientific journal article where they were testing the predictive power of a computer algorithm that figured out where proteins stuck together. I was immediately pleased with the succinct way it expressed an important process in good science. Postdiction is the prediction of something which is already known. The algorithm was developed and then tested on a set of proteins where the results were experimentally available. Most people refer to this as a 'training set'. Once the program behaves on the training set, then use it to test new systems where the outcome is uncertain. Postdiction is an important step in developing any predictive tool.
I still haven't figured out prediscover... If discover actually meant postdiscover as in postdiction, then I could see the need for it. Hopefully someone can a writeup to prediscover showing it in context.