prooemium

prooemium (plural prooemia or prooemiums)

1. Alternative form of proemium.

• prohoemium
• prohēmium, prohēmum (Medieval Latin)

Borrowed from Ancient Greek προοίμιον (prooímion).

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [proˈoe̯.mi.ũː]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [proˈɛː.mi.um]

prooemium n (genitive prooemiī or prooemī); second declension

1. a preface, introduction, prelude
   • 1772, Finnur Jónsson, chapter 1, in Historia Ecclesiastica Islandiæ [The Ecclesiastical History of Iceland]‎^[1], volume 1, Copenhagen: Orphanotrophius Regii, section 3, page 2:

     Similiter etiam proœmium antiqviſſimi libri LANDNAMÆ: Sed anteqvam Islandia habitari (a Norvegis) cœpit, viri illic erant, qvos Norvegi Papas appellant.

     [similiter etiam prooemium antīquissimī librī Landnamae: sed antequam Īslandia habitārī (ā Norvegīs) coepit, virī illīc erant, quōs Norvegī Pāpās appellant.]

     Similarly, the preface to the most ancient book, the Landnámabók, states that before Iceland was settled by the Norwegians, there were men there whom the Norwegians call Papas.

2. (poetic) a beginning

Second-declension noun (neuter).

¹Found in older Latin (until the Augustan Age).

• “prooemium”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “prooemium”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891), An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers