exordium

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   the introductory part of a speech, essay, or other formal discourse

   The speaker used her exordium to establish why the dispute mattered to every voter.

2. 2
   noun

   a beginning or commencement; formal or rare

   The treaty marked the exordium of a long period of cooperation.

Borrowed from Latin exordium, 'beginning; introduction,' from exordiri, 'to begin, especially to begin weaving or speaking.' Exordiri combines ex- ('out') with ordiri ('begin a web, lay the warp; begin to speak'), so the rhetorical opening preserves a metaphor of starting to weave a discourse.

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