Hello, you have come here looking for the meaning of the word prose. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word prose, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say prose in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word prose you have here. The definition of the word prose will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition ofprose, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.
The term prōsa(“straightforward”), a colloquial form of prorsa(“straight forwards”), the feminine form prorsus(“straight forwards”), from Old Latinprōvorsus(“moving straight ahead”), from pro-(“forward”) + vorsus(“turned”), form of vertō(“I turn”). Compare verse.
Language, particularly written language, not intended as poetry.
Though known mostly for her prose, she also produced a small body of excellent poems.
1667, John Milton, Paradise Lost (1st ed):
...Or if Sion Hill Delight thee more, and Siloa's Brook that flow’d Faft by the Oracle of God; I thence Invoke thy aid to my adventrous Song, That with no middle flight intends to soar Above th’ Ionian Mounts while it pursues Things unattempted yet in Prose or Rhime...
Language which evinces little imagination or animation; dull and commonplace discourse.
Proses are parts of the Office of the Mass which are sung just before the Gospel, upon great Festivals. The French also call those Rhythmical Hymns Proses, which are sung in their Offices in the Church of Rome, in which Rhime only, and not Quantity of Syllables, is observed.
1819, John Keats, Otho the Great, act I, scene II, verses 189-190:
Pray, do not prose, good Ethelbert, but speak; What is your purpose?
1896, Robert Smythe Hichens, The Folly of Eustace:
Already he felt himself near to being a celebrity. He had astonished Eton. That was a good beginning. Papa might prose, knowing, of course, nothing of the poetry of caricature, of the wild joys and the laurels that crown the whimsical. So while Mr. Lane hunted adjectives, and ran sad-sounding and damnatory substantives to earth, Eustace hugged himself, and secretly chuckled over his pilgrim's progress towards the pages of Vanity Fair.
