Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A preliminary discussion, especially a formal essay introducing a work of considerable length or complexity.
  • noun Prefatory remarks or observations.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A preliminary observation: chiefly used in the plural, and applied to an introductory discourse prefixed to a book or treatise.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A preliminary remark or observation; an introductory discourse prefixed to a book or treatise.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun usually in the plural A prefatory discussion; a formal essay or critical discussion serving to introduce and interpret an extended work.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a preliminary discussion inserted at the beginning of a book or treatise

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Greek, from neuter present passive participle of prolegein, to say beforehand : pro-, before; see pro– + legein, to speak; see leg- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Ancient Greek προλεγομένων (prolegomenon) referring to an introduction.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word prolegomenon.

Examples

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • What are the Lego men on?

    October 26, 2010