English

Alternative forms

• prolog

Noun

prologue ‎(plural prologues)

1. A speech or section used as an introduction, especially to a play or novel.
   • 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.
   • 1602, William Shakespeare, Troilus and Cressida:

     And hither am I come, / A Prologue armed, but not in confidence / Of author's pen or actor's voice,

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.

Antonyms

• (speech or section): epilogue

Derived terms

• prologise / prologize / prologuise / prologuize

Translations

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.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Shakespeare to this entry?)

References

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

Spanish

Verb

prologue

1. First-person singular (yo) present subjunctive form of prologar.
2. Formal second-person singular (usted) present subjunctive form of prologar.
3. Third-person singular (él, ella, also used with usted^?) present subjunctive form of prologar.
4. Formal second-person singular (usted) imperative form of prologar.