Prose is ordinary flowing writing — everything that is not verse. Clear prose, write in prose, prose and poetry.
The distinction is about line breaks rather than about beauty: prose can be more musical than bad verse, and the prose poem exists to blur the line deliberately. The Latin means straightforward speech, as against speech that turns at the end of each line.
1nounproseOrdinary writing, as against verse.
“The novel is written in simple, clear prose that is easy to read.”
prose is a kind of writing.
Latin prosa oratio means straightforward speech, from prorsus, straight ahead. Verse comes from vertere, to turn.
itc-ola
prōvorsus — moving straight ahead
Latin
prōsa — straightforward
Old French
prose
Middle English
prose
English, today
prose
Built from
From Middle English prose, from Old French prose, from Latin prōsa (“straightforward”) from the term prōsa ōrātiō (“a straightforward speech – i.e. without the ornaments of verse”). 2 The term prōsa (“straightforward”), a colloquial form of prorsa (“straight forwards”), the feminine form prorsus (“straight forwards”), from itc-ola prōvorsus (“moving straight ahead”), from pro- (“forward”) + vorsus (“turned”), form of vertō (“to turn”). Compare verse.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA