proface
English
Etymology
From Middle French bon prou vous fasse (“may [it] do you much good”).
Interjection
proface
- (obsolete) A familiar salutation or welcome offered by a host before a meal or drinks are served.
- c. 1596–1599, William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Fourth, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act V, scene iii]:
- Sweet sir, sit; I’ll be with you anon; most sweet sir, Master Page, good Master Page, sit. Proface! What you want in meat, we’ll have in drink.
- 1602, Thomas Heywood, A pleasant conceited comedie, wherein is shewed, how a man may chuse a good wife from a bad, London: Mathew Lawe,
- Gloria deo, sirs proface,
- Attend me now whilst I say grace.
- 1612, Thomas Dekker, If it be not good, the Diuel is in it, London: John Trundle,
- Thankes be giuen for flesh and fishes,
- With this choice of tempting dishes:
- To which proface: with blythe lookes sit yee,
- Rush bids this Couent, much good do’t yee.
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References
- proface in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
- The Compact Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford University Press, 1971
Anagrams
- cape for