exordium

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin exordium (“beginning, commencement”), from exōrdior (“I begin, commence”), from ex (“out of, from”) + ōrdior (“I begin”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɛɡˈzɔːdɪəm/
• IPA^(key): /ɛɡˈzɔɹdɪəm/

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

exordium (plural exordiums or exordia)

1. (formal) A beginning.
2. The introduction to an essay or discourse.
   • Template:RQ:Florio Montaigne Essayes
   • 1985, Anthony Burgess, Kingdom of the Wicked:

     This is a feeble article of faith to begin with, but it helps to push my pen through this exordium and what now follows.

Translations

beginning

• Bulgarian: начало (bg) n (načalo)
• Portuguese: exórdio (pt) m
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Russian: нача́ло (ru) n (načálo)
• Spanish: exordio (es) m

introduction to an essay or discourse

• Bulgarian: увод (bg) m (uvod), въведение (bg) n (vǎvedenie)
• Catalan: exordi m
• Finnish: alkusanat (fi) pl, johdanto (fi)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Portuguese: exórdio (pt) m
• Russian: вступле́ние (ru) n (vstuplénije), введе́ние (ru) n (vvedénije)
• Spanish: exordio (es) m

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Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin exordium.

Pronunciation

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

exordium n (plural exordia)

1. introduction, preface (to an essay or plea)

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Latin

Etymology

From exordior.

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ekˈsoːr.di.um/, [ɛkˈs̠oːrd̪iʊ̃ˑ]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ekˈsor.di.um/, [eɡˈzɔrd̪ium]

Noun

exōrdium n (genitive exōrdiī or exōrdī); second declension

1. beginning, commencement
2. introduction, preface
3. foundation, creation

   ab exordio urbis

   From the beginning / founding of the city

Declension

Second-declension noun (neuter).

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	exōrdium	exōrdia
Genitive	exōrdiī exōrdī1	exōrdiōrum
Dative	exōrdiō	exōrdiīs
Accusative	exōrdium	exōrdia
Ablative	exōrdiō	exōrdiīs
Vocative	exōrdium	exōrdia

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

Descendants

• Catalan: exordi
• English: exord, exordium
• French: exorde
• Galician: exordio
• Italian: esordio
• Portuguese: exórdio
• Spanish: exordio

References

• “exordium”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “exordium”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• exordium in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎^[1], London: Macmillan and Co.
  • the conversation began in this way: sermo inductus a tali exordio