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"exordium"
Definition: The introductory part of an argument in which a speaker or writer establishes credibility (ethos) and announces the subject and purpose of the discourse. See paragraphs 1-3 of "A Modest Proposal," by Jonathan Swift.
Etymology:
From the Latin, "beginning"
Examples:
- "I have often thought of it as one of the most barbarous customs in the world, considering us as a civilized and a Christian country, that we deny the advantages of learning to women.
"We reproach the sex every day with folly and impertinence; while I am confident, had they the advantages of education equal to us, they would be guilty of less than ourselves."
(Daniel Defoe, "The Education of Women")
- "With the complete collapse of the automobile as a means of transportation (I believe that I am correct in assuming that it has been a miserable fiasco and will soon be seen on our roads only in the form of heavy trucking vehicles or agricultural tanks), and with the failure to leave the ground of practically every airplane constructed in the last six months, thereby eliminating aviation as a factor in future travel, there remains but one solution to the problem of those of us who want to get from one place to another. We must go back to the bicycle."
(Robert Benchley, "The Return of the Bicycle")
- "The opening statement is not opening argument, but it is just that--opening statement. If you have had occasion to go to a movie, you know that there is something called the previews of coming attractions. [The opening statement] is supposed to be a guide, a roadmap, if you will, what we expect the evidence to show. . . . What I say is not evidence."
(Johnnie Cochran, opening statement in the People v. O.J. Simpson)
 Pronunciation: egg-ZOR-dee-yum |
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