Faith & RitualGreek → English
Hypocrite
/ˈhɪpəkrɪt/noun
Someone who claims moral standards they do not actually keep.
The Greek roots
ὑποκριτής
hypokritḗs
stage actor, pretender
Literally: “one who answers from under”
Follow a root:ὑποκριτής1 word
The story of the word
In Athens the ὑποκριτής was simply the actor who answered the chorus, the man behind the mask. The verb ὑποκρίνεσθαι meant to reply, then to play a part. Church Greek turned the theatre word into an accusation, and the Gospels use it for the pious fraud, which is how the sense reached English through Old French.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Late Latin → Old French → English
- First recorded
- 13th century
Same family
hypocrisycriticcriterion
In a sentence
He called her a hypocrite for lecturing about flying while booking two holidays abroad.