Is the actor an actor, a pretender or a hypocrite?

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

The meaning of the word lyceum now has a purely negative, even offensive character. Name an actor like that - he will take it as a spit in the face. Although in fact there is nothing offensive in this word initially. Perhaps it sounds phonetically not very pleasant, but the original meaning was different.

What the dictionaries say

In the "Etymological Dictionary of the Russian Language" Krylov claims that we received this word as a literal translation from the ancient Greek concept "prosopoleptos", which means "one who wears someone else's face", "makes someone else's face". Actors were called this word in antiquity, based on the fact that during performances they wore masks. That is, initially the Greeks did not think of investing any negative meaning in such an expression. The explanatory dictionary of Ozhegov says that the actor is an actor. Most other reference sources use the same meaning. The word "pretender" is also mentioned.

Church and acting

The word received such a color in the Middle Ages, thanks to the efforts of the church. Christianity immediately brandedhypocrisy as one of the sins. Like, not only does it arouse base passions in people with its antics, it also takes on the personality of another person, adopts all his misdeeds. They didn't care if they were made up or not.

For the sake of justice, it is worth noting that the Orthodox priests were partly right - at that time we did not have a serious theater, and there was no talk of any catharsis. There were only wandering buffoon artists, amusing people. Indeed, they were often noticed where debauchery took place. However, this is clearly not a reason to say that the actor is a direct messenger from the Devil.

The church's reasons for this attitude were actually quite pragmatic. Magicians and acrobats led the flock right out from under their noses, and something had to be done about it. In the end, they came to the old conclusion - “they knock out a wedge with a wedge”, adopting the techniques of buffoons and turning them into a nativity scene and Easter performances.

The hypocrite and the hypocrite

Despite the formal acceptance of hypocrisy by the Orthodox Church, this word still received a negative connotation for many centuries. Sinfulness has become attached to acting, it seems forever.

In addition, the meaning of the word hypocrite is now associated with a hypocrite. "Wearing someone else's face" stood on a par with "changing faces." Acting moved further and further away from the actors, moving on to various unpleasant personalities. “The lyceum is the same hypocrite,” people who were far from etymological orders were sure.

In addition, at this time, prototype theaters began to appear with an attempt to telldramatic stories. And now it was completely inconvenient to put people (sometimes of a noble family) involved in this art on a par with unwashed buffoons. Therefore, gradually the term "actor" went away to various jesters and unsuccessful comedians, becoming an insult to people who create real art.

Modern acting

Now the hypocrite has almost completely become synonymous with the hypocrite. True, with one fundamental difference. The word "actor" is used not for any rabble, but in relation to allegedly "respected" people. Their roles can be pseudo-singers and pseudo-singers, dancers and football players. Even a president who is trying to create the image of “his boyfriend” among the people, having 18 luxurious palaces, can be a hypocrite. True, clowns and magicians are still calm about this term, because their work is somewhat different from the theater and is aimed primarily at the spectacle.

Now the mummer is a public person who in fact does not change masks so much as wears one - someone else's. For acting, the closest analogue was pretense.