preambulation

plural preambulations

1. obsoleteA walking or going before; precedence.

   "God's two arms! A friar will evermore be meddling. Lo, good men! a fly and a friar will fall in every dish and every affair. Why speakest thou of preambulation? What! amble, or trot, or stand still, or go sit down; thou hinderest our sport in this manner."

   1904, Geoffrey Chaucer, edited by Percy MacKaye, The Canterbury Tales, Wife of Bath's Prologue

2. obsoleteA preamble.

   Explanations are usually very tedious, and so without any introduction or preambulation I will plunge right into the midst of this uncanny story I am about to tell.

   1889 July, Algernon Blackwood, “A Mysterious House”, in Belgravia, volume 69, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC, page 98

   1 more example

   But to omitte these preambulations, and come to the purpose, I tell thee—gentle Reader—if thou wilt vouchsafe the ouerlooking of this comfortable recreation, with a mind to profit, thou maist reape benefit, and be greatly bettered by the reading of it.

   1580, Humfrey Gifford, “Epistle to the Reader of the Prose in the "Posie"”, in Alexander B. Grosart, editor, The Poems of Humfrey Gifford, for private circulation, published 1870, →OCLC, page 33