liminary
Introductory or preparatory.
archaic
Closely connected to the epigrammatic form of entries in alba are poems that serve as prefatory or postfatory material of early modern prints. Harm-Jan van Dam dedicates his article to this kind of liminary poetry.
Where it comes from
From French liminaire (“introductory”) from Latin līmināris, from līmen (“doorstep, threshold; doorway, entrance; beginning, commencement”) + -ālis (suffix forming adjectives of relationship from nouns). Līmen is possibly derived from līmus (“askew; sideways”) (possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *Heh₃l- (“to bend, bow; elbow”)) + -men (suffix forming neuter nouns of the third declension) (from Proto-Indo-European *-mn̥ (suffix forming action nouns or result nouns from verbs)).
Adapted from the Wiktionary entry liminary (CC BY-SA 4.0).