exordium

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɛɡˈzɔːdɪəm/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Noun

exordium (plural exordiums or exordia)

1. (formal) A beginning
2. The introduction to a paper or discourse.
   • 1603, John Florio, transl.; Michel de Montaigne, The Essayes, […], printed at London: […] Edward Blount […], OCLC 946730821:
     , II.17:

     Cicero thinks, in discourses of philosophy, the exordium to be the hardest part: if it be so, I wisely lay hold on the conclusion.

   • 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.

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin exordium.

Pronunciation

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

exordium n (plural exordia)

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

Etymology

From exordior.

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ekˈsor.di.um/, [ɛkˈsɔr.di.ũ]

Noun

exordium n (genitive exordiī); second declension

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

   ab exordio urbis

   From the beginning / founding of the city

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, London: Macmillan and Co.
  • the conversation began in this way: sermo inductus a tali exordio