Meaning
To improvise - to speak, act or perform without a script or plan, inventing on the spot; also the improvised line itself and, as an adjective, anything improvised. The word is clipped from the Latin ad libitum, 'at one's pleasure', the traditional stage direction for performing a passage as the performer wishes. Spelling varies: ad lib in music, ad-lib for the verb and noun, adlib informally. The Latin parent phrase survives in full in classical scores. Do not confuse with off the cuff, already catalogued here, which is about unprepared speech generally rather than performance improvisation. Regional use: General English from Latin through music and theatre.
Origin
The Latin phrase came first: ad libitum, at one's pleasure or as you desire, used in musical scores and stage directions for passages left to the performer's discretion - Wikipedia's ad libitum article records its use in music and the other performing arts for various forms of improvisation, with ad lib as the adjective or adverb and ad-lib as the verb or noun. The OED's earliest evidence for ad lib in English is from 1769, in the writing of Martin Madan, a Church of England clergyman; Merriam-Webster breaks the forms down differently, dating the adverb to 1791, the adjective to 1819 and the verb to 1910, all short for ad libitum. The theatrical sense - the actor thrown a line who invents an answer, the comedian stretching a bit - is the modern heart of the word, and the printed form varies between ad lib, ad-lib and adlib.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- ad libitum
- ad-libbed
- ad-libbing
Usage Examples
- The cue cards blew away, so the presenter ad-libbed the whole second half.
- Her best line was an ad-lib the writers kept in for the rest of the run.
- Asked for a speech, he ad-libbed graciously for ten minutes without repeating himself.