foreword
n.a short piece of writing at the very beginning of a book. It is usually written by someone other than the author to introduce the book to readers.
n.a short introductory essay preceding the main text of a book, typically authored by someone other than the primary writer to provide context or endorsement.
“The famous professor wrote a foreword for her student's first book.”
“In the new edition's foreword, the editor explains why the original text remains relevant to modern readers.”
“The author was deeply honoured when his literary hero agreed to contribute a foreword, as such an endorsement would surely attract a wider audience to his debut novel.”
Often confused with 'forward' due to identical pronunciation; the spelling 'fore-' refers to its position at the front of the book.
Learners often use the directional word 'forward' instead of the literary term 'foreword'.
“Photograph: McNally Editions “On the one hand, to be honest, the book is a footnote,” says the novelist André Aciman, a longtime Rohmer fan who wrote the foreword to the new edition.”
Morphologically fore- + word. Calque of German Vorwort, itself a calque of Latin praefatio (“preface”). Cognate with German Low German Vörwoord (“foreword”), Dutch voorwoord (“foreword”), West Frisian foarwurd (“foreword”), Danish forord (“preface; proviso”), Swedish förord (“foreword”). Compare also Old English forword, foreword (“proviso; condition”).
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.