English
exordium
Exordium comes from Latin exordium ‘beginning, commencement’, and goes back to exōrdior.
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEexōrdior‘to begin, commence’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEexordium‘beginning, commencement’
- Englishearliest quotation 1603same form
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Lineage
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEexōrdior‘to begin, commence’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEexordium‘beginning, commencement’
- Englishearliest quotation 1603same form
Earliest quotation: 1603, Michel de Montaigne, The Essayes […]: “Cicero thinks, in discourses of philosophy, the exordium to…”
A compound of ex ‘out of, from’ + ōrdior ‘to begin’
Proto-Indo-European *h₁eǵʰs ‘out’
Proto-Italic *eks
Latin ex ‘out of, from’
Every English word from Latin exōrdior
Today it means
noun A beginning.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Latin exōrdior / exordium