theatre

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /ˈθɪə.tə/, /θiˈet.ə/, US /ˈθiː.ə.t̬ɚ/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English theatre, borrowed from Old French theatre, and directly from Latin theātrum (“playhouse, theatre; stage; spectators”),^[2][3][4] from Ancient Greek θέατρον (théātron, “place for viewing”),^[2][3] from theâsthai “to behold”, from théā “a view”, with the suffix -tron denoting a place.^[2][3] Barnhart traces it to PIE *dhāu-, relating it to thaûma “marvel”,^[3] but Beekes considers théā Pre-Greek, without Indo-European cognates.^[2] The spelling theater was usual from about 1550 to about 1700 and was kept in the United States, while British English returned to theatre.^[3][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

In ancient Greece and Rome, an open-air place for viewing plays and spectacles: about 1374–1380 in the OED and Barnhart, in Chaucer's Boethius.^[5][3] In Ælfric's Old English vocabulary, Latin theatrum was rendered wafungstede “a place for sights”, which suggests the Anglo-Saxons had no such thing.^[2]

Semantic evolution

A building for performing plays is from 1577.^[3][5] A place of action or scene of events, as in theatre of war, is found as early as 1581.^[3] Drama as an art, or as an institution, is from 1668, in Dryden.^[3][5] A room with tiers of seats for lectures, and later for surgery, is from the 17th century: the operating theatre is from the 1660s, named because early operating rooms had banks of seats for observers.^[6][2] In North America and New Zealand theatre also means a cinema (1923).^[5] Theatrical is from 1558.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 1374 – an ancient open-air theatre.^[5]
• 1558 – theatrical.^[3]
• 1577 – a playhouse.^[3][5]
• 1581 – a scene of action.^[3]
• 1660s – an operating theatre.^[6]
• 1668 – drama as an art.^[3][5]
• 1923 – a cinema.^[5]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A building or outdoor area where plays and other shows are performed.
2. The writing, production and acting of plays; drama.
3. (British) A room in a hospital where operations are done; an operating theatre.
4. A room with rows of raised seats for lectures.
5. An area where important events, especially fighting, take place: a theatre of war.
6. (US, Australia) A cinema.

Related words

• theater
• theatrical
• theory
• amphitheatre

Usage notes

Theatre is the usual British spelling and theater the usual American one, though some American theatres use the -re spelling in their names.^[2][7]

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 Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins