Art & MusicGreek → English
Thespian
/ˈθɛspiən/noun
An actor, or anything relating to drama.
The Greek roots
Θέσπις
Théspis
Thespis, literally divinely speaking
Literally: “of Thespis”
Follow a root:Θέσπις1 word
The story of the word
Thespis of Icaria is credited with stepping out of the chorus around 534 BC and answering it in the character of someone else, which made him the first actor and made drama out of choral song. Greek tradition also has him touring Attica with his props in a cart. English used thespian as an adjective from the 1670s; the noun meaning an actor is nineteenth century, and has carried a faint theatrical grandeur ever since.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → English
- First recorded
- 1670s
In a sentence
A dozen local thespians turned up for the audition, most of them from the same choir.