sequel [LME] The earliest use of sequel was ‘a band of followers’. Latin sequi ‘to follow’ is the source, seen also in consequence [LME] and sequence [LME], and perhaps in the root of *see. Sequel developed the senses ‘what happens afterwards’ and ‘the remaining part of a story’ in the early 16th century. In the 1950s it inspired the prequel, which portrays events that precede those of an existing completed work. From music comes segue [M18] from Italian seguire from sequi. It was originally an instruction in classical music to continue to the next movement without a break, but is now more often found used of moving from one recorded song to another without a break or something with a similar effect.