proface

English

Etymology

From Middle French bon prou vous fasse (“may [it] do you much good”)

Interjection

proface

1. (obsolete) A familiar salutation or welcome offered by a host before a meal or drinks are served.
   • c. 1597 William Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part 2, Act V, Scene 3,^[1]

     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, London: Mathew Lawe,^[2]

     Gloria deo, sirs proface,

     Attend me now whilst I say grace.

   • 1612, Thomas Dekker, If it be not good, the Diuel is in it, London: John Trundle,^[3]

     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

• “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

Anagrams

• cape for