The Collaborative International Dictionary
Prolegomenon \Prol`e*gom"e*non\, n.; pl. Prolegomena. [ NL.,
fr. Gr. ?, properly neut. pass. p. pr. of ? to say
beforehand; ? before + ? to say.]
A preliminary remark or observation; an introductory
discourse prefixed to a book or treatise.
--D. Stokes (1659).
Sir W. Scott.
Wiktionary
n. (plural of prolegomenon English) An introduction at the start of a book, usually used in plural form.
WordNet
See prolegomenon
Wikipedia
Prolegomenon (usually plural prolegomena) is an Ancient Greek word used to mean " prologue" or " introduction", to introduce a larger work, e.g., a book.
Prolegomena may specifically refer to:
- Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics by Immanuel Kant
Prolegomena to a Theory of Language by Louis Hjelmslev
- Ibn Khaldun's Prolegomena, or Muqaddimah, an early Islamic treatise on world history, by Ibn Khaldun
- Prolegomena zur Geschichte Israels (Prolegomena to the History of Israel), a book by German biblical scholar Julius Wellhausen
Usage examples of "prolegomena".
From the analogy of the Armenian, Persian, Aethiopic versions, expressly quoted by the fathers of the fifth century, who assert that the Scriptures were translated into all the Barbaric languages, (Walton, Prolegomena ad Biblia Polyglot, p.
It can no longer be found in the second and later editions, which, as well as the Prolegomena, keep the idealistic tendency more in the background, because Kant saw that this side of his philosophy had lent itself most to attacks and misunderstandings.
This seemed to him to endanger that invaluable and indispensable originality which every founder of a system values so highly (see Prolegomena zu jeder künftigen Metaphysik.
After more ages the stories simply skipped the prolegomena and opened with the ship blasting out of space and the captain jumping out of his ship, sniffing the air and finding it even better than Earth's, and claiming it in the name of - well, it used to be the British Empire, but that changed too.