proface
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English[edit]
Etymology[edit]
From Middle French bon prou vous fasse (“may [it] do you much good”).
Interjection[edit]
proface
- (obsolete) A familiar salutation or welcome offered by a host before a meal or drinks are served.
- c. 1596–1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Fourth, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene iii]:
- Sweet sir, sit; I’ll be with you anon; most sweet sir, Master Page, good Master Page, sit. Proface! What you want in meat, we’ll have in drink.
- 1602, Thomas Heywood, A pleasant conceited comedie, wherein is shewed, how a man may chuse a good wife from a bad[1], London: Mathew Lawe:
- Gloria deo, sirs proface,
Attend me now whilst I say grace.
- 1612, Thomas Dekker, If it be not good, the Diuel is in it[2], London: John Trundle:
- Thankes be giuen for flesh and fishes,
With this choice of tempting dishes:
To which proface: with blythe lookes sit yee,
Rush bids this Couent, much good do’t yee.
References[edit]
- “proface”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
- The Compact Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford University Press, 1971