hypocrita

Forms

hypocrita m (genitive hypocritae); first declension^[1] The OLD heads it in the Greek form hypocritēs (genitive hypocritae), which Quintilian uses.^[2][3] Medieval spellings include ypocrita, hipocrita and hypochrita.^[4][5]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek ὑποκριτής (hupokritḗs, “actor”).^[2][6][1] In Greek the word meant a stage actor and, by extension, a pretender or dissembler.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Quintilian, in the Institutio oratoria, uses the form hypocritēn for an actor: he recalls that Demades had been an oarsman and Aeschines an actor before they became orators.^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

In the classical period it named an actor,^[2] and in particular a mime who accompanied an actor's delivery with gestures, as in Suetonius and in another passage of Quintilian.^[6][3][8]

The Vulgate uses it for a hypocrite (Job 8.13, Matthew 6.2), the sense of Ecclesiastical Latin,^[6][3][9] and the glossaries explain it as simulator, one who says one thing and does or thinks another.^[10] In medieval Latin it meant above all a dissembler or false pretender to piety, often said of clerics and false teachers, though Albertus Magnus still uses it of an actor.^[5][11] English took it over about 1200, through Old French, in the sense of a false pretender to virtue.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 35–95/96 AD – Quintilian uses hypocritēs for an actor.^[2][4]
• c. 75–c. 150 AD – Suetonius, in his life of Nero, uses it of a mime.^[2][6][4]
• 390–406 AD – The Vulgate uses it for a hypocrite.^[6][3][4]
• 745 – Letters of Boniface speak of false priests and hypocrites.^[11]
• c. 1200 – English borrows the word, through Old French, as ypocrite.^[7]
• 13th century – Albertus Magnus uses it of an actor.^[5][4]

Meanings

Noun

1. An actor.^[2][5]
2. A mime who accompanied an actor's delivery with gestures.^[6][3][8]
3. (Ecclesiastical Latin) A hypocrite, a dissembler.^{[6][9][11][5]}

Related words

• English hypocrite

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
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 c d e Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
6. ^ a b c d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
9. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
10. ^ Goetz, Georg (1888–1923), Corpus glossariorum Latinorum, Leipzig: Teubner; vols. VI–VII Thesaurus glossarum emendatarum, digital ed. CGLO, Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
11. ^ a b c Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press