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Prequel vs Prologue - What's the difference?

prequel | prologue |

As nouns the difference between prologue and prequel

is that prologue is a speech or section used as an introduction, especially to a play or novel while prequel is in a series of works, an installment that is set chronologically before its predecessor, especially the original narrative or (perhaps improper usage) any narrative work with at least one sequel.

As a verb prologue

is to introduce with a formal preface, or prologue.

prequel

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • (narratology) In a series of works, an installment that is set chronologically before its predecessor, especially the original narrative or (perhaps improper usage) any narrative work with at least one sequel.
  • * 1980 , Patrick Robertson, Movie Facts and Feats: A Guinness Record Book , New York: Sterling Publishing, p. 43:
  • 'Prequels' are sequels that relate the story that preceded the original film.
  • * 2008 , 26 February, Andrew Pierce, "JRR Tolkien's estate to sue Lord of the Rings filmmakers New Line Cinema over profits, in
  • They are also threatening to block the production of the long-awaited prequel , The Hobbit, which may now be cancelled.

    Usage notes

    Most often used, not as a direct antonym of sequel, to refer to earlier works in a series, but to refer to works that are chronologically before'' but are created and released ''after;'' an archetypal example is the .

    Antonyms

    * sequel

    Coordinate terms

    * midquel

    prologue

    Alternative forms

    * prolog

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A speech or section used as an introduction, especially to a play or novel.
  • *{{quote-book, year=1905, author=
  • , title= , chapter=2 citation , passage=“H'm !” he said, “so, so—it is a tragedy in a prologue and three acts. I am going down this afternoon to see the curtain fall for the third time on what [...] will prove a good burlesque ; but it all began dramatically enough. It was last Saturday […] that two boys, playing in the little spinney just outside Wembley Park Station, came across three large parcels done up in American cloth. […]”}}
  • One who delivers a prologue.
  • * 1602 , :
  • And hither am I come, / A Prologue armed, but not in confidence / Of author's pen or actor's voice,
  • (computing) A component of a computer program that prepares the computer to execute a routine.
  • Antonyms

    * (speech or section) epilogue

    Derived terms

    * prologise / prologize / prologuise / prologuize

    Verb

    (prologu)
  • To introduce with a formal preface, or prologue.
  • (Shakespeare)

    References

    *