English
prologetic
Prologetic may come from Latin prologēticus ‘self-centered’.
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
- 1 Wiktionary, English prologetic
- Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1855, Walter Murray Gibson, The Prison of Weltevreden: “PROLOGETIC. Description of Prison of Weltevreden [etc.…] 1”.
Lineage
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEprologēticusWiktionary, English prologetic‘self-centered’uncertain
- Englishearliest quotation 1855prologeticWiktionary, English prologetic. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1855, Walter Murray Gibson, The Prison of Weltevreden: “PROLOGETIC. Description of Prison of Weltevreden [etc.…] 1”
Formed from prologue + -etic
Proto-Indo-European *leǵ- ‘to collect (words)’
…
Ancient Greek πρόλογος ‘the prologue of a play’
Latin prologus ‘a preface to a play’
Old French prologue
Middle English prologue
English prologue
The story
Probably either from the Latin prologēticus or formed in English as prologue + -etic, in both cases resembling a hypothetical Ancient Greek etymon of the form *προλογητικός (prologētikós), from πρόλογος (prólogos, “prologue”) + -ητικός (-ētikós, “-etic”), a formation akin to the extant words ἀναλογητικός (analogētikós, “analogetic”) (from ἀνάλογος (análogos), whence analogue), ἀπολογητικός (apologētikós, “apologetic”) (from ἀπόλογος (apólogos), whence apologue), and ὁμολογητικός (homologētikós, “homologetic”) (from ὁμόλογος (homólogos), whence homologue).
Every English word from Latin prologēticus
Today it means
adj Occurring in or serving as a prologue.
Sources
Sources: Wiktionary, “prologetic”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.
Etymograph / Latin prologēticus / prologetic