Politics & SocietyGreek → English
Hypocrisy
/hɪˈpɒkrəsi/noun
The practice of professing standards you do not keep.
The Greek roots
ὑπό
hypó
under
κρίνειν
krínein
to judge, decide
Literally: “playing a part on stage”
The story of the word
In Attic Greek a ὑποκριτής was an actor, the man who answered the chorus from behind a mask, and ὑπόκρισις was his craft: delivery, playing a part. No blame attached. The moral charge comes from the Septuagint and then the Gospels, where the word is thrown at people performing piety, and English inherited the accusation rather than the job description around 1200. Critic, crisis and criterion come off the same verb.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Late Latin → Old French → English
- First recorded
- around 1200
Same family
hypocritecriticcrisiscriterion
In a sentence
Charging for the review while claiming it was independent was pure hypocrisy.