prelude

Etymology

It is partly borrowed from Middle French prélude,^[2][3][4][5] which meant a series of notes sung or played to exercise the voice or try an instrument (1530) and also an introduction or preliminary action (1535),^[2] and partly directly borrowed from Medieval Latin praelūdium (“preliminary action; notes played before a piece of music”),^[2][6][7][8] the French word's own source.^[2][3] The Medieval Latin noun comes from Latin praelūdō (“to play beforehand for practice; to compose a prelude; to preface”),^[3][4][7] formed from prae- (“before”) and lūdō (“to play”),^[7][6][9] the verb of lūdus (“play, game”).^[6][8] The verb prelude is either borrowed from the Latin verb or converted from the English noun.^[2][6][3] The OED compares Spanish preludio (1496), Italian preludio (before 1472) and Portuguese prelúdio.^[2] The Latin verb is also the source of prelusion and prelusive, and its root of ludicrous.^[4][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

A preliminary action or condition that comes before and introduces a more important one: 1548, in the translation of Erasmus's paraphrase of Mark by N. Udall and others.^[2] Merriam-Webster Unabridged also gives 1548,^[5] while Barnhart's first record is from 1561^[3] and Etymonline dates it to the 1560s.^[4]

Semantic evolution

In English the general sense "preliminary, introduction" came first, the reverse of French, where the musical sense is older.^[2] The specifically musical sense, originally a short piece, often improvised, played to tune an instrument or warm up before another piece, is recorded from about 1637, in Hobbes;^[2] Barnhart finds it first in Phillips's dictionary (1658), and Etymonline dates it to the 1650s.^[3][4] The modern musical senses grew from it: a movement introducing a fugue or suite, the introduction to an opera or oratorio, an opening voluntary in church, and an independent piece, especially for piano, of similar character.^[5][8][7] Ben Jonson used prelude in 1616 for a short play performed before the main play, a sense that did not last.^[2] Johnson (1755) gave the musical sense first, "some short flight of musick played before a full concert", and then "something introductory".^[10] The verb, "to serve as a prelude", is recorded from 1631,^[2][5] and Barnhart's first example is from Henry Vaughan's Silex Scintillans (1655).^[3] The musical verb, "to play a prelude", is from 1680, in Dryden.^[2]

Timeline

• 1548 – a preliminary action or event introducing a more important one.^[2][5]
• 1616 – a short play before the main play (now obsolete).^[2]
• 1631 – verb, to serve as a prelude.^[2][5]
• before 1637 – verb, to precede as a prelude; to foreshadow.^[2]
• c. 1637 – music, a short piece played before another.^[2]
• 1680 – verb, to play a prelude, in Dryden.^[2]
• 1697 – verb, to introduce with a prelude, in Dryden's translation of Virgil.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. An action, event or condition that comes before and leads up to something more important; an introduction or preliminary: The skirmish was a prelude to open war.^[8][5][2]
2. (music) A piece or movement that introduces a larger work, such as a fugue, a suite, or an act of an opera.^[8][5][7]
3. (music) A short independent piece, especially for piano, in the free style of such an introduction.^[8][5][7]
4. (music) An opening voluntary played at the start of a church service.^[5][7]

Verb

1. To serve as a prelude to; to come before and foreshadow.^[8][5][2]
2. To introduce with a prelude: He preluded his talk with a joke.^[8][2]
3. To play a prelude, or to play something as a prelude.^[5][2]

Word family

• preluder
• preludiously
• unpreluded

Related words

• prelusion
• prelusive
• ludicrous
• interlude
• postlude
• preludium

Usage notes

The OED notes that the verse quotations and the dictionaries down to about 1830 give the verb a stress on the second syllable, and that Smart (1836) was the first to stress the first syllable like the noun, which is now usual;^[2] Tennyson used both.^[2] Merriam-Webster Unabridged records several pronunciations of the first vowel in American English.^[5]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ a b c d e f g h Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
9. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.