prologue

• prolog (chiefly US)

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

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈpɹəʊlɒɡ/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

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

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.

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

• prologuize

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 […]

• Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “prologue”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

Inherited from Old French prologue, a borrowing from Latin prologus, itself borrowed from Ancient Greek πρόλογος (prólogos).

• IPA^(key): /pʁɔ.lɔɡ/

• Audio

  (file)

prologue m (plural prologues)

1. prologue

   Coordinate term: épilogue

• avant-propos

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

prologue

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