prompt

Etymology

From French prompt, from Latin prōmptus (“visible, apparent, evident”), past participle of prōmō (“to take or bring out or forth, produce, bring to light”), from prō (“forth, forward”) + emō (“to take, acquire, buy”).

adj

1. Quick; acting without delay.
   He was very prompt at getting a new job.
   a prompt response
2. On time; punctual.
   Be prompt for your appointment.
3. (archaic) Ready; willing to act.
   Tell him, I am prompt / To lay my Crowne at's feete, and there to kneele. 1623, William Shakespeare, Antony & Cleopatra, act 3, scene 8
4. (finance) Front: closest or nearest, in futures trading.
   When physical crude oil transactions are priced, they are usually marked to the prompt month futures contract. The prompt month futures contract is the next futures contract to settle. 2013-07-05, Davis W. Edwards, Energy Investing DeMystified: A Self-Teaching Guide, McGraw Hill Professional, page 19
   The settlement ratio is determined as follows: i) If the prompt futures price of coal at maturity is less than or equal to the floor price, the ratio will be one. 2021-05-11, Neil C. Schofield, Commodity Derivatives: Markets and Applications, John Wiley & Sons, page 448

noun

1. A reminder or cue.
   1. (writing) A suggestion for inspiration given to an author.
2. (business, dated) A time limit given for payment of an account for produce purchased, this limit varying with different goods.
3. (computing) A sequence of characters that is displayed to indicate that a computer is ready to receive input.
   I filled in my name where the prompt appeared on the computer screen but my account wasn't recognized.
4. (machine learning) Textual input given to a large language model in order to have it generate a desired output.
   For instance, using the “instruct” mode, I once gave GPT-3 the prompt: “Write an essay discussing the role of metafiction in the work of Italo Calvino.” 2022-04-15, Steven Johnson, Nikita Iziev, “A.I. Is Mastering Language. Should We Trust What It Says?”, in The New York Times, →ISSN

verb

1. (transitive) To lead (someone) toward what they should say or do.
   I prompted him to get a new job.
2. (transitive, theater and television) To show or tell an actor/person the words they should be saying, or actions they should be doing.
   If he forgets his words I will prompt him.
3. (transitive) To initiate; to cause or lead to.
   The only sour note on a virtually perfect night for England came from shameful 'monkey' chanting aimed at Ashley Cole and Ashley Young from a section of Bulgaria's fans which later prompted an official complaint from the Football Association to Uefa. September 2, 2011, Phil McNulty, “Bulgaria 0-3 England”, in BBC
   On October 6, 1927, Warner Bros. released The Jazz Singer, the first sound-synched feature film, prompting a technological shift of unprecedented speed and unstoppable force. Within two years, nearly every studio release was a talkie. 2012, Christoper Zara, Tortured Artists: From Picasso and Monroe to Warhol and Winehouse, the Twisted Secrets of the World's Most Creative Minds, part 1, chapter 1, 27