role-playingn.
/ˈrəʊlˌpleɪɪŋ/, U.S. /ˈroʊlˌpleɪɪŋ/ 1. The acting out of roles; spec. the unconscious performance of a role in conforming to social expectations for behaviour in a particular position or situation.
ΘΚΠ
society > communication > representation > role-playing > [noun]
role-playing1901
role-taking1933
role-play1952
1901 E. L. Baldwin tr. K. Groos Play of Man ii. iii. 306 There is hardly any limit to the rôle playing [Ger. Rollengebiet] of civilized children.
1943 Public Opinion Q. 7 561 Any group atmosphere can be conceived of as a pattern of role playing.
1951 Amer. Sociol. Rev. 16 181/2 In role-playing one does not pretend anything. A policeman arresting a person is..performing or playing a role expected of one holding the position of public protector.
1980 Times Lit. Suppl. 23 May 575/5 Role-playing is perhaps the true subject of the modern novel.
1995 Independent 22 Mar. 23/5 The ambiguities of S&M role-playing were beyond the police's comprehension.
2004 A. MacIntyre in P. Villiers & R. Adlam Policing Safe, Just & Tolerant Society iv. 39 Although the lives of individuals are constituted in large part by the various roles that they play, they are generally able to reflect upon their role-playing in ways that are not dictated by these same roles.
2. The (improvised) acting out of roles in a specified scenario, as an educational or psychotherapeutic technique. Cf. psychodrama n. 1.
ΘΚΠ
the world > health and disease > healing > psychiatry > [noun] > psychotherapy > involving drama > an improvised play in
psychodrama1932
role-playing1943
sociodrama1943
1943 Sociometry 6 291 He can easily stop the psychodrama long enough to..make a suggestion..without disrupting the spontaneity and reality of the role-playing.
1952 Group Psychotherapy 5 73 (title) Role playing as a method of academic education.
1963 B. Friedan Feminine Mystique vii. 169 The point of role-playing, a technique adapted from group therapy, is to get students to understand problems ‘on a feeling level’.
2002 S. McCarthy in C. E. Stout Psychol. of Terrorism IV. viii. 139 An anger management training strategy..used Gestalt techniques of role-playing, primal screams, art therapy, and the empty chair.
3. Participation in a role-playing game; the playing of (a role in) such games.
ΚΠ
1980 People 14 Jan. 67/2 Next comes role-playing. Adopting a mythic-sounding name,..a player heavy with intelligence might choose to be a wizard.
1981 J. E. Holmes Fantasy Role Playing Games (1982) i. 23 Since fantasy role playing is a game, beginners often ask what they have to do to win.
1988 Weekend Austral. 16 Apr. 10/2 Wargaming and roleplaying..use painted model soldiers and medieval monsters to relive the campaigns of history or invent space battles.
1995 J. Miller Voxpop i. 26 My mates in Essex are really into role-playing.
Compounds
C1. General attributive.
ΚΠ
1943 Sociometry 6 287 One of the most effective techniques..is the utilization of several variations of the role-playing or psychodramatic situation.
1963 B. Friedan Feminine Mystique vii. 171 The girls take..the sexual statistics, the role-playing insights, not only literally and out of context, but personally.
1983 Listener 10 Feb. 8/3 The role-playing skill of the actors.
1995 Edge Nov. 60/2 The follow up to last year's lukewarm 3D roleplaying title Slayer, SSi's Death Keep..generates a markedly more impressive 3D game world.
1997 J. Seabrook Deeper v. 137 My teenage nephew..had found a home in a role-playing chat room.
C2.
role-playing game n. a game in which participants act out roles; (now usually) spec. a game in which players take on the roles of imaginary characters who engage in adventures, typically in a particular fantasy setting overseen by a referee; (also in later use) a computer game of this kind.
ΚΠ
1954 H. I. Driver Multiple Counseling vi. 115 The rules of this role-playing game included reversing roles at anytime in the conversation the leader dictated.
1976 J. M. Ward (title of game) Metamorphosis Alpha: fantastic role-playing game of science fiction adventures.
1996 K. Hafner & M. Lyon Where Wizards stay up Late vii. 205 A small circle of friends at BBN had gotten hooked on Dungeons and Dragons, an elaborate fantasy role-playing game in which one player invents a setting and populates it with monsters and puzzles, and the other players then make their way through that setting.
2001 Wired Feb. 76/1 Currently, only first-person shooters support 3Q's technology, but the real killer app is likely to be the coming generation of multiplayer role-playing games.
This is a new entry (OED Third Edition, September 2000; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1901