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Prologue vs Tale - What's the difference?

prologue | tale |

As nouns the difference between prologue and tale

is that prologue is a speech or section used as an introduction, especially to a play or novel while tale is number.

As verbs the difference between prologue and tale

is that prologue is to introduce with a formal preface, or prologue while tale is to speak; discourse; tell tales.

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

    *

    tale

    English

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl), from (etyl) . Related to tell, talk.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (obsolete) Number.
  • (obsolete) Account; estimation; regard; heed.
  • (obsolete) Speech; language.
  • (obsolete) A speech; a statement; talk; conversation; discourse.
  • (legal, obsolete) A count; declaration.
  • (rare, or, archaic) Numbering; enumeration; reckoning; account; count.
  • * (John Dryden)
  • Both number twice a day the milky dams; And once she takes the tale of all the lambs.
  • (rare, or, archaic) A number of things considered as an aggregate; sum.
  • (rare, or, archaic) A report of any matter; a relation; a version.
  • An account of an asserted fact or circumstance; a rumour; a report, especially an idle or malicious story; a piece of gossip or slander; a lie.
  • * , chapter=7
  • , title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=“A very welcome, kind, useful present, that means to the parish. By the way, Hopkins, let this go no further. We don't want the tale running round that a rich person has arrived. Churchill, my dear fellow, we have such greedy sharks, and wolves in lamb's clothing. […]”}}
  • A rehearsal of what has occurred; narrative; discourse; statement; history; story.
  • A number told or counted off; a reckoning by count; an enumeration.
  • * Hooker
  • the ignorant, who measure by tale , and not by weight
  • * Milton
  • And every shepherd tells his tale , / Under the hawthorn in the dale.
  • * Carew
  • In packing, they keep a just tale of the number.
  • * 1843 (Thomas Carlyle), '', book 2, ch. 5, ''Twelfth Century
  • They proceeded with some rigour, these Custodiars; took written inventories, clapt-on seals, exacted everywhere strict tale and measure
  • (slang) The fraudulent opportunity presented by a confidence man to the mark (sense 3.3) of a confidence game.
  • Derived terms
    * fairy tale / fairytale * folk tale / folktale * (l) * (l) * (l) * (l) * tall tale * telltale * tell tales * tell tales out of school

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl) talen, from (etyl) .

    Verb

    (tal)
  • (dialectal, or, obsolete) To speak; discourse; tell tales.
  • (dialectal, chiefly, Scotland) To reckon; consider (someone) to have something.
  • Etymology 3

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • Anagrams

    * ----