Art & MusicGreek → English
Protagonist
/proʊˈtæɡənɪst/noun
The leading character in a story, or the main mover in an event.
The Greek roots
πρῶτος
prôtos
first
ἀγωνιστής
agōnistḗs
contestant, actor
Literally: “first actor”
The story of the word
Athenian tragedy used three speaking actors, and they were ranked: πρωταγωνιστής, δευτεραγωνιστής, τριταγωνιστής, first, second and third. The word marked a job, not a moral position, so a protagonist could be a monster. Because the pro- looks like the Latin prefix meaning in favour of, English speakers often read protagonist as the opposite of antagonist, which is a coincidence of shape; the Greek pieces are first and competitor, and ἀγών also gives agony.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → English
- First recorded
- 1670s
The same roots elsewhere
Other languages reached for exactly the same Greek pieces.
Same family
antagonistagonyprotocolprototype
In a sentence
The protagonist spends the first hundred pages doing almost nothing.