Etymologically
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histrio

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈhɪs.tri.oː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈis.tri.o][1]

Forms

histriō m (genitive histriōnis); third declension[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Etruscan hister (“actor”), extended with the suffix -iō: Livy and Valerius Maximus report ⟨hister⟩ as the Etruscan word for an actor.[2][3][4][1] Wiktionary calls the further origin unknown.[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Plautus,[4] whose prologues speak of actors and who mentions a word an actor said on stage.[3]

Semantic evolution

It is a stage actor, tragic or comic: Cicero says no one would think a good comedian could come from the worst actor, and Pliny the Elder names Aesopus, an actor of tragedies.[3] Under the Empire it is above all a performer of pantomime, in Petronius, Tacitus and Juvenal, who says an actor will give what the nobles will not.[2][3] Celsus uses it for a boaster: it is the actor's way to make much of a small thing.[3]

Church Latin has it for a stage player, actor.[5] In Medieval Latin it is a jongleur or a court jester.[6]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of actors.[3][4]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero of a bad actor.[3][4]
  • before 66 AD – Petronius of a pantomime.[2][4]
  • c. 67–c. 127 AD – Juvenal of a rich actor.[2][4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. An actor, stage player.[2][3][1][5]
  2. A performer of pantomime.[2]
  3. (figurative) A boaster.[3]
  4. (Medieval Latin) A jongleur; a court jester.[6]

Word family

  • histriculus
  • histriōnālis
  • histriōnicus
  • histriōnius

Usage notes

Döderlein says actor, cōmoedus and tragoedus present the player as a respectable artist, lūdiō and lūdius as one who acts for a living, and histriō mostly carries a notion of buffoonery and boasting.[7]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  5. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  6. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
  7. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper