Hors d’œuvre

Outside of the main work/course.

Literally, hors (outside) d’ (of) œuvre (work) means “apart from the work,” and thus, by extension, it was used to mean anything of secondary concern or even something extrodinary.  First appearing in English in 1714 as an adverb with this connotation of “out of the ordinary, ” the term evolved to mean more specifically, “outside the ordinary courses (of a meal)” by 1742. Now, we just use it as the small bits of food served before the main meal.