act

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ækt/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English acte, borrowed from Old French acte and directly borrowed from Latin āctus (“a doing; a driving; a part in a play”) and āctum (“a thing done; a public transaction, record”),^[2][3][4] both from the past participle of agere (“to drive, set in motion; to do, perform”),^[2][3][5] from Proto-Indo-European *ag- (“to drive, draw out, move”).^[2][4] The Latin verb is related to Ancient Greek ἄγειν (ágein, “to lead”) and Old Norse aka (“to drive”).^[3] It is related to agent, action, active and acre.^[3][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

A thing done: about 1380, in Chaucer's House of Fame,^[3][2] perhaps first in a legal sense.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Etymonline notes that Latin agere already had a wide range, including acting on stage and pleading a case at law, and that both the legislative and the theatrical senses of the noun were Latin.^[2] A record of proceedings is an act from 1398,^[7] and a law passed by a legislature from the early 15th century.^[2][8][7] A division of a play is from the 1510s.^[2] In the act is from the 1590s,^[2] and an act of God from 1726.^[2] The verb first meant “to decide a legal case” in the mid-15th century;^[2][9] “to do, perform” is from about 1600, and “to perform on stage” from the 1590s.^[2] In the 17th and 18th centuries act could mean “to move to action”, the sense now taken by actuate, as in South's “most people ... are acted by levity and humour”.^[10] An act in a variety show is from 1890, and a show of affected behaviour, as in put on an act, from 1928.^[2] Act up is from 1900, at first of a horse, get into the act from 1947, and get one's act together by 1976.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1380 – a thing done (Chaucer).^[3]
• 1398 – a formal record.^[7]
• early 15th century – a law.^[2]
• c. 1460 – verb.^[3]
• 1510s – a division of a play.^[2]
• 1590s – to perform on stage, and in the act.^[2]
• 1726 – act of God.^[2]
• 1890 – an act in a variety show.^[2]
• 1928 – a pretence.^[2]
• 1976 – get one's act together.^[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. Something done; a deed.
2. The process of doing something: caught in the act.
3. A law or decree passed by a legislature or court; a statute.
4. A formal written record of proceedings.
5. One of the main divisions of a play or opera.
6. A short performance in a show, or the performers.
7. A pretence: it's all an act.

Verb

1. To do something; to take action.
2. To behave in a given way.
3. To perform a role in a play or film.
4. To pretend.
5. To serve or function: act as chairman.
6. (with on or upon) To have an effect on.

Word family

• actability
• actable
• coact
• postact
• unacted
• play-act
• actor
• actress

Related words

• action
• active
• agency
• agent
• activate
• deactivate
• actual
• acre

Usage notes

The American Heritage Dictionary notes that act and action overlap, but that act tends to mean a deed, and action the process of doing.^[11]

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
5. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ a b c Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
8. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Trench, Richard Chenevix (1859), A Select Glossary of English Words Used Formerly in Senses Different from Their Present, London: John W. Parker
11. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin