actorn.
/ˈaktə/, U.S. /ˈæktər/ΘΚΠ
society > law > administration of justice > court proceedings or procedure > action of courts in claims or grievances > party in litigation > [noun] > plaintiff
cravera1300
actora1325
askera1325
plaintiffa1325
plainer1340
challengera1382
pursuanta1393
follower1397
suer1423
pursuer1430
plainant1437
suitor1454
suit maker1469
complainant1495
plainandc1500
callerc1503
tabler1517
complaintiffc1533
complainer?1542
impleader1583
pledant1599
proceedera1618
querent1720
pulsator1730
demandeur1818
movant1875
rapper1904
society > law > legal profession > lawyer > [noun] > state or public law officers > state or public prosecutor
quaestora1387
promoter1485
fiscal1539
actor1598
fisc1732
public prosecutor1750
district attorney1856
Director of Public Prosecutions1879
procurator1917
D.A.1934
D.P.P.1942
society > law > legal profession > lawyer > [noun] > counsellor, barrister, or advocate
advocatec1384
oratorc1384
prolocutor1493
counsellor1530
barristerc1545
barman1657
bar-gown1664
counsel1709
limb of the bar1815
blue bag1817
actor1875
a1325 Statutes of Realm (2011) vii. 30 Þei ate furste semy þat teo tenaunt be actur, ant to louerd defendur..realliche semez raþur actur oþer plaininde þane defendinde.
c1430 Acts Parl. Scotl. (1844) I. 362/2 And he haf nocht a borch til fynde,..he that is actor folowand aw to be kepyt withoutyn scath.
c1460 in A. Clark Eng. Reg. Oseney Abbey (1907) 198 (MED) In plee þe which was bitwene religiouse men, Abbot and Couent of Oseneye..actorres..and Master Richard Malyngton.
1483 ( tr. G. Deguileville Pilgrimage of Soul (Caxton) (1859) i. viii. 6 That the actour be admytted to maken hys compleynt, and purpoos his askynge.
1598 R. Grenewey tr. Tacitus Annales iii. xiv. 85 The publike actor had bought Silanus bondmen, to the end they shoulde be examined by torture.
1625 F. Bacon Ess. (new ed.) xxv. 144 Sometimes it is seene, that the Moderator is more troublesome, then the Actor.
1647 N. Bacon Hist. Disc. Govt. xx. 60 The King may not..determine causes wherein himselfe is actor.
1721 M. Dutton Office & Authority Sheriffs 472 Both Plaintiff and Defendant in a Quare impedis may be Actors.
1768 W. Blackstone Comm. Laws Eng. III. 25 In every court there must be at least three constituent parts, the actor, reus, and judex: the actor, or plaintiff, who complains of an injury done.
1825 H. Wheaton Rep. Supreme Court U.S. 10 268 The government is the only legal actor.
1875 E. Poste tr. Gaius Institutionum Iuris Civilis (ed. 2) i. 154 The temporary representative of a Corporation for the purpose of suing and being sued, was called Actor.
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > safety > protection or defence > care, protection, or charge > [noun] > one who looks after > guardian or custodian
herd971
wardena1290
keepera1300
yemerc1330
looker1340
tutor1377
actorc1384
conservator1447
custosc1450
guardian1477
custodier?c1500
custode1543
guardant1592
custodian1602
supervisor1691
vigilant1822
c1384 Bible (Wycliffite, E.V.) (Douce 369(2)) (1850) Gal. iv. 2 How moche tyme the eyr is litil..he is vndir tutouris and actouris [a1425 L.V. keperis, L. actoribus].
1481 in Dict. Older Sc. Tongue (1937) I. 20/1 [I] Henry Scheues..ordanis..James Barcla..my verray lauchfule and wndoutit procuratour, actour, factour and erande barer.
1516 in M. Livingstone Reg. Secreti Sigilli Regum Scotorum (1908) I. 423/1 All utheris his..fermoraris, actouris, factouris, procuratouris and intromettouris.
1646 Earl of Musgrave Instrument to Parl. in S. D'Ewes Jrnls. Parl. Queen Elizabeth (1682) 7/2 The Right Honourable William Viscount..my lawful Actor, and Procurator.
1775 I. Fletcher Diary 21 July (1994) 304 The old smithy which he pretends he has sold to the actors for the chappel in order to build a school-house upon.
3.
a. A thing which or person who performs or takes part in an action; a doer, an agent.Occasionally with figurative allusion to sense 4.
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > doing > [noun] > one who acts or does
wright971
doer1382
workerc1384
actorc1425
performerc1443
factor1461
committer1509
accomplisher1538
setter1548
enurer1556
performancer1621
commissioner1651
facienta1670
performant1809
enactor1837
transactor1863
c1425 tr. J. Arderne Treat. Fistula (Sloane 6) (1910) 87 (MED) Natural hete in þe body, which is principal actour of curyng, expireþ out of ofte remeuyng of a wounde.
1461–2 Rolls of Parl.: Edward IV (Electronic ed.) Parl. Nov. 1461 §18. m. 11 The same Henry, actour, factour and provoker of the seid commocion..shamefully refused theym.
1561 in J. D. Marwick Extracts Rec. Burgh Edinb. (1875) III. 123 Vpoun consideratioun of the necessar and godlie seruice dalie done be Ihonne Carnys, actour of the mornyng prayeris.
1583 in J. Spottiswood Hist. Church Scotl. (1655) vi. 326 Providing the Actors and Assisters do shew themselves penitent.
1604 F. T. Case is Altered sig. Bv Oh wicked money, to be the Actor of such a mischiefe.
a1616 W. Shakespeare Measure for Measure (1623) ii. ii. 37 Condemne the fault, and not the actor of it. View more context for this quotation
1694 R. Molesworth Acct. Denmark in 1692 (ed. 3) 44 Received not only from eye-witnesses, but also from some of the principal..Actors.
1759 W. Robertson Hist. Scotl. I. i. 5 The characters of the actors are displayed.
1792 J. Almon Anecd. Life W. Pitt (octavo ed.) IV. App. 268 He came very young into Parliament, and..soon equalled the oldest and ablest actors.
1819 S. Rogers Human Life 14 Now distant ages, like a day, explore, And judge the act, the actor now no more.
1875 E. Poste tr. Gaius Institutionum Iuris Civilis (ed. 2) Introd. 13 An actor is negligent when he is ignorant of the consequences of his act.
1912 W. James Ess. Radical Empiricism vi. 162 Bare activity would thus be predicable, though there were no definite direction, no actor, and no aim.
1960 V. Van Dyke Polit. Sci. iii. xi. 124 We define politics as a struggle among actors pursuing conflicting desires on public issues.
2001 S. Caffrey & G. Mundy in W. O. Weyrauch Gypsy Law 110 No study mentions Gypsies ever attempting to understand or express an offense in terms of the pathology of the actor.
b. Grammar. The subject or agent which performs the action of a verb.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > language > linguistics > study of grammar > syntax or word order > syntactic unit or constituent > [noun] > subject
supposite1585
subject1615
actor1721
nominative1808
subjective1829
1721 tr. T. Le Fèvre Compend. Way teaching Learned Langs. 66 The Verb must be of the same Number and Person with its Nominative Case; which is always the Actor, or the principal Word in every Sentence.
1773 Ld. Monboddo Of Origin & Progress of Lang. I. i. iii. ix. 390 They have..verbs which denote that the action is reflected upon the actor, something like the Greek middle verbs.
1829 J. Mill Anal. Human Mind I. iv. 154 All actions, saving those which begin and end in the actor, have a reference to a patient, or something acted on.
1899 E. J. Hoenshel Adv. Gram. xlvi. 60 When the subject denotes the actor (as in the first sentence), the verb is in the Active Voice.
1933 L. Bloomfield Lang. xi. 173 John ran is said to be a predication, in which the actor (John) is the subject and the action (ran) the predicate.
2004 H. Diessel Acquisition Complex Sentences vi. 146 The first referent of the construction is expressed by the head of the relative clause functioning as the actor or agent of the activity expressed by the verb.
4. A person who acts a part on stage or (in later use also) in a film, on television, etc.; a dramatic performer, a player. Frequently in figurative context. Also in extended use: a person who behaves in a theatrical manner; a person skilled in dissimulation.With preceding distinguishing word, as character actor, method actor, movie actor, etc., see the first element.On the use of actor with reference to a female performer, see note at actress n. 2a.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > performance arts > drama > actor > [noun]
playera1400
game-player1533
comedy player1550
stage-player1561
actor1566
histrion?1566
comediant1568
representer1579
stager1580
presentera1586
histrio1589
stageman1589
gamester1596
player-man1596
Roscius1600
stagerite1602
theaterian1602
comedian1603
scenic1612
representant1622
play-actor1633
parta1643
histrionic1647
representator1653
artist1714
mummer1773
actor-manager1826
Thespian1827
impersonator1830
personifier1835
player-manager1895
thesp1962
luvvie1988
1566 W. Painter Palace of Pleasure I. Ep. Ded. To whom may be giuen a Theatre of the world, and stage of humaine miserie, more worthily, than to him that hath with comely gesture, wyse demeanor, and orderly behauiour, bene an actor in the same?
1568 Newe Comedie Iacob & Esau v. x. sig. G.ivv (stage direction) All the rest of the actours aunswer Amen.
1597 W. Shakespeare Richard II v. ii. 24 After a well-graced Actor leaues the stage. View more context for this quotation
1646 J. Hall Horæ Vacivæ 19 God sends us not unto the Theater of this World to be mute persons, but actors.
1663 A. Cowley Cutter of Coleman-St. v. ii. 57 Thou were wont to be a precious Knave, and a great Actor too.
1666 S. Pepys Diary 27 Dec. (1972) VII. 422 Doll Common doing Abigail most excellently, and Knipp the Widow very well (and will be an excellent actor I think).
1775 E. Burke Speech Amer. Taxation 44 Another scene was opened, and other actors appeared on the stage.
1779 Mirror No. 9. ⁋2 The part of Lear was to be performed by an actor who had studied the character under the English Roscius.
1825 C. Lamb in London Mag. Aug. 600 The exquisite art of the actor in a perpetual sub-insinuation to us, the spectators,..that he was not half such a coward as we took him for.
1860 R. B. Brough Marston Lynch xxxi. 342 The contemptuous haste of an actor gabbling a part.
1876 J. R. Green Short Hist. Eng. People (1878) x. 730 Pitt was essentially an actor, dramatic in the Cabinet, in the House, in his very office.
1922 A. Woollcott Shouts & Murmurs ii. 57 The Actor and the Streetwalker... The two oldest professions in the world—ruined by amateurs.
1948 Daily Times-News (Burlington, N. Carolina) 11 Dec. 4/4 ‘You can't be a great lover,’ punchlined Lupita, ‘unless you're a great actor.’
1966 Daily Rev. (Hayward, Calif.) 21 Nov. 20/6 Italy..is..the only country where women actors are better than men.
1980 N.Y. Times (Nexis) 30 Sept. c9/4 He and fellow actor Mary Steenburgen were cast to play a young H. G. Wells and the woman he loved.
2004 G. D. Phillips Godfather iv. 94 The part called for an actor who possessed the sort of magnetism and charisma that this pivotal role in the movie required.
Compounds
C1. Appositive.
actor-author n.
ΚΠ
1838 Mirror Lit., Amusem., & Instr. 22 Sept. 203/2 One day the great actor-author determined to put her sagacity to a trial, and for that purpose read to her a few scenes from Brécourt.
1917 C. Hamilton Social Plays A. W. Pinero 15 Irving paid the young actor-author £50 for Daisy's Escape.
2006 Bk. Links July 68/3 Each tale introduced by ardent fans, such as actor-author John Lithgow.
actor-director n.
ΚΠ
1905 Washington Post 16 Apr. (Theatrical section) 1/4 The performance of a Moliere comedy with our American Irving as the actor-director is surely a theatrical event.
1963 Times 23 Apr. 16/1 An actor-director celebrated for his support of avant-garde playwrights.
2008 E. Evans & C. Grant Mama, PhD 258 Before and after graduate school, she freelanced as an actor-director.
actor-playwright n.
ΚΠ
1887 Graphic 3 Sept. 251/2 While the theoretical playwright, unversed in the ways of the stage, is apt to give his personages much to say and little to do, the actor-playwright's tendency is precisely the other way.
1926 H. W. Fowler Dict. Mod. Eng. Usage 644/1 The actor-playwright is invariably the better craftsman than the literary man who commences dramatist.
2008 Boston Globe (Nexis) 8 Feb. When actor-playwright Keith Reddin sat down to write ‘The Missionary Position,’ he wasn't thinking about sex.
actor-producer n.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > performance arts > cinematography > filming > filming unit or team > [noun] > producer or director
art director1871
producer1891
director1911
production director1915
actor-producer1927
society > leisure > the arts > performance arts > the theatre or the stage > the staging of a theatrical production > people concerned with theatrical productions > [noun] > director or producer
play-dresser1602
acting manager1733
metteur en scène1851
producer1891
director1911
actor-producer1961
1927 J. P. Kennedy Story of Films viii. 181 There are seventeen actor-producers, men and women producing dramatic films and comedies.
1961 Times 28 Apr. 15/5 Let a young actor-producer be appointed to direct it—one who will commit himself entirely to the living theatre.
2002 T. Leitch Crime Films vii. 155 [Michael] Douglas, the actor-producer who had won an Oscar for playing the take-charge Gordon Gekko in Wall Street.
C2.
actor-action adj. Grammar of or designating a type of construction in which the subject precedes the verb; cf. sense 3b.
ΚΠ
1911 J. Anderson Gram. of Case ix. 140 Accounts of transitivity conducted in terms of ‘actor-action-patient’.]
1933 L. Bloomfield Lang. xi. 172 Quite a few of the present-day Indo-European languages agree with English in using an actor-action form as a favorite sentence-type.
1996 J. Aitchison Seeds of Speech (2000) ix. 120 An actor-action order is overwhelmingly more common than action-actor as a major sentence pattern in the languages of the world.
actor-man n. now rare a male theatrical actor.
ΚΠ
1774 G. Colman Man of Business v. 65 A Scotch actorman.
1842 F. M. Trollope Ward of Thorpe-Combe xxxi. 306 He was ten times more like an actor man upon the stage than a gentleman.
1921 Times 17 May 5/3 Emma..fell in love with an actor-man on tour in Shrewsbury.
actor-manage v. (of an actor or actors) to manage (a person, a theatre, etc.); chiefly in passive.
ΚΠ
1907 G. B. Shaw Let. to G. Barker 27 Feb. (1956) 75 If I am to be actor-managered out of all my decent leading men..I shall go and be actor-managed by Alexander.
1983 F. Rame in Dario Fo & Franca Rame: Theatre Workshops 63 La Commune is no longer a theatrical collective. It has returned to being actor-managed.
actor-managed adj. (of a theatre or theatre company) managed by an actor or actors.
ΚΠ
1890 Freeman's Jrnl. (Dublin) 5 June 4/8 These are actor-managed theatres, but would the popular voice in London declare in favour of a general adoption of the system?
1982 E. Braun Director & Stage i. 16 The influence of the Meininger on Benson was limited by the small scale of his actor-managed touring company.
2003 Oregonian (Portland, Oregon) (Nexis) 18 Apr. One of the oldest, most revered actor-managed physical theater companies in the country.
actor management n. the management of a theatre or theatre company by an actor.
ΚΠ
1847 Fine Arts' Jrnl. 24 Mar. 324/1 Actor-management..leads to interference, that is prejudicial to originality of conception.
1904 P. Fitzgerald Garrick Club viii. 241 What discussions, heated and other, used there to be on this topic of actor-management!
2004 Jrnl. Hellenic Stud. 124 200/2 Brown investigates the scant literary evidence for actor management in early Republican times.
actor-manager n. an actor who also manages a theatre or theatre company.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > performance arts > drama > actor > [noun]
playera1400
game-player1533
comedy player1550
stage-player1561
actor1566
histrion?1566
comediant1568
representer1579
stager1580
presentera1586
histrio1589
stageman1589
gamester1596
player-man1596
Roscius1600
stagerite1602
theaterian1602
comedian1603
scenic1612
representant1622
play-actor1633
parta1643
histrionic1647
representator1653
artist1714
mummer1773
actor-manager1826
Thespian1827
impersonator1830
personifier1835
player-manager1895
thesp1962
luvvie1988
society > leisure > the arts > performance arts > the theatre or the stage > the staging of a theatrical production > people concerned with theatrical productions > [noun] > theatre manager
stage-keepera1586
actor-manager1826
actress-manageress1888
house manager1894
player-manager1895
intendant1958
1826 F. Reynolds Life & Times II. 126 I speak of Actor-managers both in town, and in country.
1864 Reader 24 Dec. 792/1 Another mischief-working influence is that of actor-managers and manageresses.
1908 Classical Q. 2 85 Vain as an actor-manager.
1959 B. Hewitt Theatre U. S. A. v. 280 He was not satisfied..to star in the productions of others, and in 1886 set himself up as an actor-manager.
2003 A. Collins Where did it all go Right? 87 I had tried the actor-manager route, casting myself in consecutive, self-written skits.
actor-manager v. transitive (of an actor-manager) to deprive (a person) of an actor for a role.Apparently an isolated use.
ΚΠ
1907 G. B. Shaw Let. to G. Barker 27 Feb. (1956) ii. 75 If I am to be actor-managered out of all my decent leading men..I shall go and be actor-managed by Alexander.
actor-proof adj. (of a play or a part in a play) that is of sufficient quality or interest to be well-received regardless of the quality of the actor or performance.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > performance arts > drama > a play > [adjective] > qualities of play
unproduceable1704
playable1725
unproduciblea1760
undramatic1769
unplayable1806
unactable1810
actable1825
blue fire1826
undramatical1829
actor-proof1893
nailed-up1894
talky1937
society > leisure > the arts > performance arts > drama > part or character > [adjective] > types of part or character
protatic1658
fat1758
melpomenish1801
heavy1814
starring1833
Polonian1847
supporting1863
Polonial1872
actor-proof1893
Ophelian1903
1893 Era 2 Sept. 9/2 The Middleman is a thoroughly effective stage play, which is, as the slang phrase goes, ‘actor-proof’, and is, if even tolerably acted, certain to secure a good deal of favour.
1923 J. M. Murry Pencillings 206 Molière is infinitely the better dramatist... His plays are as actor-proof as Shakespeare's.
1992 S. Colley Richard's himself Again xii. 221 Performing memorably as Richard III—despite the reputation of the role as actor-proof—is one of the more daunting challenges in the theater.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, November 2010; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
<
n.a1325