prologue

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

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈpɹəʊlɒɡ/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈpɹoʊlɔɡ/, /ˈpɹoʊlɑɡ/

Noun

prologue (plural prologues)

1. 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. […] ”

2. 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[ward] 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;

3. (computing) A component of a computer program that prepares the computer to execute a routine.
4. (cycling) An individual time trial before a stage race, used to determine which rider wears the leader's jersey on the first stage.
5. (Eastern Orthodoxy) A liturgical book containing daily readings, including hagiography.

Antonyms

• (antonym(s) of “speech or section”): epilogue, epilog

Derived terms

• prologuize

Translations

speech or section used as an introduction, especially to a play or novel

• Bengali: প্রাক্ কথন (prāk kathana)
• Bulgarian: пролог (bg) m (prolog)
• Catalan: pròleg m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 序幕 (zh) (xùmù)

• Czech: prolog m
• Dutch: proloog (nl)
• Esperanto: prologo
• Finnish: prologi (fi)
• French: prologue (fr) m
• German: Prolog (de) n
• Greek:

  Ancient: πρόλογος m (prólogos)

• Hebrew: פרולוג (he) m
• Hungarian: prológus (hu), bevezető (hu), előszó (hu)
• Japanese: プロローグ (ja) (purorōgu), 序幕 (ja) (じょまく, jomaku)
• Latin: praefātiō f
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: prolog m

• Polish: prolog (pl) m
• Portuguese: prólogo (pt) m
• Russian: проло́г (ru) m (prológ), предисло́вие (ru) n (predislóvije)
• Scottish Gaelic: ro-ràdh m
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: пре̏дгово̄р, про̀лог,

  Roman: prȅdgovōr (sh) m, pròlog (sh)

• Spanish: prólogo (es) m
• Swedish: prolog (sv) c
• Telugu: పూర్వరంగము (te) (pūrvaraṅgamu)
• Ukrainian: проло́г (uk) m (prolóh)
• Uyghur: مۇقەددىمە (muqeddime)
• Yiddish: פּראָלאָג m (prolog)

Verb

prologue (third-person singular simple present prologues, present participle prologuing, simple past and past participle prologued)

1. 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[ames] R[oberts] for N[icholas] L[ing] […], 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

• IPA^(key): /pʁɔ.lɔɡ/

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

prologue m (plural prologues)

1. prologue

   Coordinate term: épilogue

See also

• avant-propos

Further reading

• “prologue”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Spanish

Verb

prologue

1. inflection of prologar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative