prologue

prologue

See also: prologué

English

Alternative forms

• prolog

Etymology

From Middle English prologue, prologe, from Old French prologue, from Latin prologus, from Ancient Greek πρόλογος (prólogos).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈpɹəʊlɒɡ/

• Audio (RP)

  (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

   • 1905, Baroness Emmuska Orczy, chapter 2, in The Lisson Grove Mystery‎:

     “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 606515358, “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.

Derived terms

• prologuize

Translations

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

Bulgarian: пролог (bg) m (prolog) Catalan: pròleg m Chinese: Mandarin: 序幕 (zh) (xùmù) Czech: prolog m Dutch: proloog (nl) 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 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) 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 760858814, [Act I, scene i]:

     […] harbindgers preceading ſtill the fates
     and prologue to the Omen comming on […]

References

• Douglas Harper (2001–2023), “prologue”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

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French

Pronunciation

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

prologue m (plural prologues)

1. prologue

Further reading

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

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Spanish

Verb

prologue

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