Also actour. [a. L. actor, n. of agent, f. act- ppl. stem of ag-ĕre to drive, carry on, do, act. The Fr. acteur is later in Littré. The development of meaning took place in L.]
† 1. A manager, overseer, agent or factor (transl. L. actor.) Obs.
1382. Wyclif, Gal. iv. 2. He is vndir tutouris and actouris, til to the tyme determyned of the fadir. [1388 under keperis and tutoris. Vulg. sub tutoribus et actoribus.]
† 2. A pleader; he who conducts an action at law; a. the plaintiff or complainant; b. an advocate in civil cases; c. a public prosecutor. Obs. exc. as a term in Rom. law.
1413. Lydg., Pylgr. Sowle, I. vi. (1859), 6. That the actour be admytted to maken his compleynt, and purpoos his askynge.
1603. Greenwey, Tacitus, Ann., III. xiv. (1622), 85. The publicke actor had bought Silanus bondmen, to the end they should bee examined by torture.
1625. Bacon, Ess., xxv. (Arb.), 247. Sometimes it is seene, that the Moderator is more troublesome then the Actor.
1649. Selden, Laws of Eng., I. xx. (1739), 37. The king may not … determine Causes wherein himself is actor.
1768. Blackstone, Comm., 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.
1875. Poste, Gaius, I. 154. The temporary representative of a Corporation for the purpose of suing and being sued, was called Actor.
3. One who acts, or performs any action, or takes part in any affair; a doer. (In later usage nearly always with fig. allusion to 4.)
1603. Shaks., Meas. for M., II. ii. 37. Condemn the fault and not the actor of it.
1604. Case is Altered, in Thynne’s Animadv., 138. Oh wicked money, to be the Actor of such a mischiefe.
1759. Robertson, Hist. Scotl., I. I. 5. The characters of the actors are displayed.
1819. S. Rogers, Hum. Life, 102. Now distant ages, like a day, explore, And judge the act, the actor now no more.
1875. Poste, Gaius, Introd. 13. An actor is negligent when he is ignorant of the consequences of his act.
4. One who personates a character, or acts a part; a stage-player, or dramatic performer.
1581. Sidney, Def. Poesie (Arb.), 25. There is no Arte delivered to mankinde, that hath not the workes of Nature for his principall object … on which they so depend, as they become Actors and Players as it were, of what nature will have set foorth.
1593. Shaks., Rich. II., V. ii. 24. After a well grac’d actor leaues the Stage.
1646. J. Hall, Horae Vacivae, 19. God sends us not unto the Theater of this world to be mute persons, but actors.
1651. Hobbes, Leviathan, I. xvi. 80. A Person, is the same that an Actor is, both on the Stage and in common Conversation.
1697. Congreve, Mourning Bride, Prol. 17.
| Were you not griev’d, as often as you saw | |
| Poor Actors thresh such empty Sheafs of Straw? |
1748. J. Mason, Elocution, 4. The Latins by Pronunciatio and Actio meant the same thing, hence they whose Business it is to speak publickly on the Stage, are with us called Actors.
1774. Burke, Sp. Amer. Tax., Wks. II. 419. Another scene was opened and other actors appeared on the stage.
1876. Green, Short Hist., x. (1878), 730. Pitt was essentially an actor, dramatic in the Cabinet, in the House, in his very office.
5. Comb. actor-man, obs., a (theatrical) actor; actor-manager, a manager of a theater, who is also an actor.
1796. Miss Burney, Camilla, II. v. (1840). I desire to know by whose authority you present such actormen to a young lady under my care.
1864. Reader, 24 Dec., 792/1. Another mischief-working influence is that of actor-managers and manageresses.
