prolegomenon
Americannoun
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prolegomena
plural
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a preliminary discussion; introductory essay, as prefatory matter in a book; a prologue.
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(sometimes used with a singular verb) Usually prolegomena. a treatise serving as a preface or introduction to a book.
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of prolegomenon
1645–55; < New Latin < Greek prolegómenon, neuter of passive present participle of prolégein to say beforehand, equivalent to pro- pro- 2 + légein to say (akin to lógos logos )
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Sovereign Nations is a group that, on its website, describes itself “as a prolegomenon to the formation of a new, and not just sentimental, conservative and Constitutional Republic.”
From Slate ● Feb. 25, 2018
Instead, what emerged from the session was yet another prolegomenon to future negotiations, brokered at the very last minute—and over the objections of many other world leaders—by President Barack Obama.
From The New Yorker ● Aug. 24, 2015
A second prolegomenon: believe it or not, I don’t dislike Brad DeLong.
From Forbes ● Sep. 22, 2014
The miscellanies really stand to the novels in the relation of a sort of prolegomenon.
From Balzac by Frederick Lawton
The play, one feels, must remain unique, for the prolegomenon cannot be rewritten while the philosophy is unchanged.
From G. K. Chesterton, A Critical Study by Julius West
With these prolegomena, he launched into the discussion of the terms we have offered to debtor nations.
From Time Magazine Archive
In 1894 this was republished, with prolegomena, in vol. ix. of 'Collected Essays,' with the title, "Evolution and Ethics, and other Essays."
From Recent Tendencies in Ethics by William Ritchie Sorley
Coleridge never finished anything, and his works are a heap of fragments of the prolegomena to ambitious schemes.
From The English Utilitarians, Volume II (of 3) James Mill by Sir Leslie Stephen
The prolegomena are entirely different from those in the other edition, and an elaborate preface is added, giving an account of several editions of the Dance of Death.
From The Dance of Death Exhibited in Elegant Engravings on Wood with a Dissertation on the Several Representations of that Subject but More Particularly on Those Ascribed to Macaber and Hans Holbein by Francis Douce
The complete poem was intended to appear with an elaborate mock commentary by Scriblerus, explaining some of the allusions, and with "proeme, prolegomena, testimonia scriptorum, index auctorum, and notæ variorum."
From Alexander Pope English Men of Letters Series by Sir Leslie Stephen
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
