prologue
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See also: prologué
English
Alternative forms
- prolog (chiefly US)
Etymology
From Middle English prologue, prologe, from Old French prologue, from Latin prologus, from Ancient Greek πρόλογος (prólogos).
Pronunciation
Noun
prologue (plural prologues)
- A speech or section used as an introduction, especially to a play or novel.
- Synonyms: forespeech; see also Thesaurus:foreword
- Antonyms: epilogue; see also Thesaurus:afterword
- 1904–1905, Baroness Orczy [i.e., Emma Orczy], “The Lisson Grove Mystery”, in The Case of Miss Elliott, London: T[homas] Fisher Unwin, published 1905, →OCLC; republished as popular edition, London: Greening & Co., 1909, OCLC 11192831, quoted in The Case of Miss Elliott (ebook no. 2000141h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg of Australia, February 2020:
- “H'm !” he said, “so, so—it is a tragedy in a prologue and three acts. I am going down this afternoon to see the curtain fall for the third time on what […] will prove a good burlesque ; but it all began dramatically enough. It was last Saturday […] that two boys, playing in the little spinney just outside Wembley Park Station, came across three large parcels done up in American cloth. […] ”
- One who delivers a prologue.
- c. 1602, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Troylus and Cressida”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, “the prologue”:
- And hither am I come, / A Prologue arm’d, but not in confidence / Of Authors pen, or Actors voyce;
- (computing) A component of a computer program that prepares the computer to execute a routine.
- (cycling) An individual time trial before a stage race, used to determine which rider wears the leader's jersey on the first stage.
- (Eastern Orthodoxy) A liturgical book containing daily readings, including hagiography.
Antonyms
Derived terms
Translations
speech or section used as an introduction, especially to a play or novel
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Verb
prologue (third-person singular simple present prologues, present participle prologuing, simple past and past participle prologued)
- To introduce with a formal preface, or prologue.
- c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, The Tragicall Historie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke: (Second Quarto), London: I R for N L , published 1604, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i]:
- […] harbindgers preceading ſtill the fates
and prologue to the Omen comming on […]
References
- Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “prologue”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
French
Etymology
Inherited from Old French prologue, a borrowing from Latin prologus, itself borrowed from Ancient Greek πρόλογος (prólogos).
Pronunciation
Noun
prologue m (plural prologues)
See also
Further reading
- “prologue”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé , 2012.
Spanish
Verb
prologue
- inflection of prologar: