prosewise

English

WOTD – 7 February 2020

Etymology

From prose +‎ -wise (suffix meaning ‘in the manner of’).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈpɹəʊzwaɪz/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈpɹoʊzwaɪz/
• Hyphenation: prose‧wise

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

Adverb

prosewise (not comparable)

1. In terms of prose, as opposed to poetry.
   • 1653, Richard Lloyd, “The True Reason of a Right Syntax”, in The Latine Grammar. Or, A Guide Teaching a Compendious VVay to Attaine Exact Skill in the Latine Tongue, for a Proper Congruity and Elegant Variety of Phrases in Prose and Verse. […], London: Printed by Thomas Roycroft, for the author, →OCLC, section 2 (Of Elegance in Some Postures Swarving from the Vulgar), page 180:

     Laſt Proſe placed verſewiſe, or verſe placed proſewiſe will loſe their elegance.

   • 1770, William Shakespeare, King Lear. A Tragedy. […], London: Printed by W. and J. Richardson; and sold by B[enjamin] White, […], →OCLC, act IV, scene v, page 148, footnote x:

     All but the qu's omit, and now behold: this ſeems to be put out in the ſo's, to make verſe of what is printed proſewiſe in the qu's.

   • 1868 February 8, “Members out of Parliament”, in The Illustrated London News, volume LII, number 1468, London: Printed & published by George C. Leighton […], →OCLC, page 143, column 2:

     Being the representative of a town upon the sea, he seems to think it desirable that there should be a nautical bluffness in his style; and he ever suggests in his speeches, a paraphrase into politics of one of [Charles] Dibdin's sea-songs delivered prosewise.

   • 1884, Henry Hucks Gibbs, editor, The Life and Martyrdom of Saint Katherine of Alexandria, Virgin and Martyr: […], London: Nichols and Sons, →OCLC:

     [...] which is an early middle English version of the Latin story, the language being apparently that of the year 1200 or thereabouts, written in metre but given prosewise in the MS. from which Mr. Hardwick printed.

   • 1958 October 12, Eudora Welty, “All is grist for his mill; THE MOST OF S. J. PERELMAN. 650 pp. New York: Simon & Schuster. $5.95. [book review]”, in The New York Times (section BR), New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 4, column 5; republished as “The Most of S. J. Perelman: S[idney] J[oseph] Perelman”, in Pearl Amelia McHaney, editor, A Writer’s Eye: Collected Book Reviews, Jackson, Miss.: University Press of Mississippi, 1994, →ISBN, page 124:

     The book is put together chronologically, which is as good a way as any to see what was going on, prosewise, from 1930 to 1958 when Louella Parsons, whose syntax Mr. P. recommends for its narcotic value ("You don't even need a prescription") sets him the scene for "Nirvana Small by a Waterfall."

   • 2006, Adam Sexton, Master Class in Fiction Writing: Techniques from Austen, Hemingway, and Other Greats: Lessons from the All-star Writer’s Workshop, New York, N.Y.: McGraw-Hill, →ISBN, page xv:

     Prosewise, I tried to write sentences reminiscent of what I had "heard" (or thought I had heard) in British novels — this sort of elegant, erudite voice.

Translations

in terms of prose

• Italian: in prosa

Further reading

• prose on Wikipedia.Wikipedia