prose
pronunciation
How to pronounce prose in British English:
UK [prəʊz]
How to pronounce prose in American English:
US [proʊz]
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- Noun:
- ordinary writing as distinguished from verse
- matter of fact, commonplace, or dull expression
Word Origin
- prose
- prose: [14] Prose is etymologically ‘straightforward discourse’ (as opposed to the more sophisticated discourse of poetry). The term comes via Old French prose from Latin prōsa, which was short for prōsa ōrātiō ‘straightforward discourse’. Prōsus ‘straightforward, direct’ was a contraction of an earlier prōversus, the past participle of prōvertere ‘turn forward’. This was a compound verb formed from the prefix prō- ‘forward’ and vertere ‘turn’ (source of English verse, version, etc).=> verse, version
- prose (n.)
- c. 1300, "story, narration," from Old French prose (13c.), from Latin prosa oratio "straightforward or direct speech" (without the ornaments of verse), from prosa, fem. of prosus, earlier prorsus "straightforward, direct," from Old Latin provorsus "(moving) straight ahead," from pro- "forward" (see pro-) + vorsus "turned," past participle of vertere "to turn" (see verse). "Good prose, to say nothing of the original thoughts it conveys, may be infinitely varied in modulation. It is only an extension of metres, an amplification of harmonies, of which even the best and most varied poetry admits but few." [Walter Savage Landor, "Imaginary Conversations"] Meaning "prose writing; non-poetry" is from mid-14c. The sense of "dull or commonplace expression" is from 1680s, out of earlier sense "plain expression" (1560s). Those who lament the want of an English agent noun to correspond to poet might try prosaist (1776), proser (1620s), or Frenchified prosateur (1880), though the first two in their day also acquired in English the secondary sense "dull writer."
Antonym
Example
- 1. It didn 't produce prose of great beauty .
- 2. Graceful prose does not a gentleman make .
- 3. Prose was certainly an easier medium .
- 4. The book was keats : poetry and prose .
- 5. But the absurd stories and rum prose are not necessarily works of art .