Wiktionary

prose

See also: Prose and pro se

English

edit
 
English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia
 
Prose Edda in ancient manuscript.
 
Printed prose followed by verses on the same page for illustration

Etymology

edit

From Middle English prose, from Old French prose, from Latin prōsa (“straightforward”) from the term prōsa ōrātiō (“a straightforward speech – i.e. without the ornaments of verse”).[1][2]

further etymology and related terms

The term prōsa (“straightforward”), a colloquial form of prorsa (“straight forwards”), the feminine form prorsus (“straight forwards”), from Old Latin prōvorsus (“moving straight ahead”), from pro- (“forward”) + vorsus (“turned”), form of vertō (“I turn”).[2] Compare verse.

Pronunciation

edit

Noun

edit

prose (usually uncountable, plural proses)

  1. 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)‎[1]:
      ...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...
  2. Language which evinces little imagination or animation; dull and commonplace discourse.
  3. (Roman Catholicism) A hymn with no regular meter, sometimes introduced into the Mass.
    • 1699, A new ecclesiastical history‎[3]:
      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.

Antonyms

edit

Derived terms

edit
edit

Translations

edit

Verb

edit

prose (third-person singular simple present proses, present participle prosing, simple past and past participle prosed)

  1. To write or repeat in a dull, tedious, or prosy way.
    • 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[4]:
      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.

References

edit
  1. ^ “prose, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 29 September 2021.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “prose”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

Anagrams

edit

Czech

edit

Pronunciation

edit

Etymology 1

edit

Noun

edit

prose

  1. locative singular of proso

Etymology 2

edit

Verb

edit

prose

  1. masculine singular present transgressive of prosit
edit

French

edit

Etymology

edit

Borrowed from Latin prōsa.

Pronunciation

edit

Noun

edit

prose f (plural proses)

  1. prose

Derived terms

edit

Verb

edit

prose

  1. inflection of proser:
    1. first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
    2. second-person singular imperative

Further reading

edit

Anagrams

edit

Italian

edit

Noun

edit

prose f

  1. plural of prosa

Anagrams

edit

Lower Sorbian

edit
 
proseta

Etymology

edit

From Proto-Slavic *porsę.

Pronunciation

edit
  • IPA(key): /ˈprɔsɛ/, [ˈprɔsə]

Noun

edit

prose n animal (genitive singular proseśa, nominative dual proseśi, nominative plural proseta)

  1. piglet

Declension

edit
declension of prose
Singular Dual Plural
Nominative prose proseśi proseta
Genitive proseśa proseśowu prosetow
Dative proseśeju proseśoma prosetam
Accusative prose proseśi proseta
Instrumental proseśim proseśoma prosetami
Locative proseśu proseśoma prosetach

Further reading

edit
  • Muka, Arnošt (1921, 1928) “prose”, in Słownik dolnoserbskeje rěcy a jeje narěcow (in German), St. Petersburg, Prague: ОРЯС РАН, ČAVU; Reprinted Bautzen: Domowina-Verlag, 2008
  • Starosta, Manfred (1999) “prose”, in Dolnoserbsko-nimski słownik / Niedersorbisch-deutsches Wörterbuch (in German), Bautzen: Domowina-Verlag
Retrieved from "https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=prose&oldid=81934178"