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prelude

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Pronunciation

  • UK: /ˈpɹɛljuːd/, /ˈpɹiːluːd/[1]
  • US: /ˈpɹeɪl(j)uːd/, /ˈpɹɛl(j)uːd/[1]

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
  • 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.