| Word of the Week--"foreword" |
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Definition--
an introduction to a book, often by a writer other than the author; preface.
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Discussion--The foreword to a book often provides useful insights and a different perspective on the material than offered by the author. I prefer to read the foreword last, after I've read and interpreted the book myself.
As you'll see below, foreword means what it sounds like it means--the word that comes before. This meaning is quite different from its homophone forward, which has nothing to do with writing and books and prefaces.
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Etymology--foreword is a translation of the German Vorwort, which means the earlier word. The Latin for preface is praefatio, which may be the model from which the German word is derived.
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| In all the translations below, you can see the equivalent of the meaning first or early word, although Italian appears not to have a direct equivalent, although Italian does include an equivalent for preface. |
Foreign Translations
| German: |
Vorwort (nt) |
| Dutch: |
voorwoord (het) |
| French: |
avant-propos |
| Italian: |
introduzione |
| Spanish: |
prólogo |
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