catharsis

en-noun

catharsis (countable and uncountable, plural catharses)

/kəˈθɑɹˌsɪs/

From Ancient Greek κάθαρσις (kátharsis, “cleansing, purging”), from καθαίρω (kathaírō, “I cleanse”). Coined in the dramatic-emotional sense by Aristotle.

uder

True, as the show has entered its later years, there have been more inspired moments of catharsis, but fewer unpredictable arcs and story beats, as a narrative nearing its conclusion is no longer attempting to shock.

2019 April 14, Alex McLevy, “Winter is Here on Game of Thrones’ Final Season Premiere (Newbies)”, in The A.V. Club, archived from the original on 2020-12-18:

(drama) A release of emotional tension after an overwhelming vicarious experience, resulting in the purging or purification of the emotions, as through watching a dramatic production (especially a tragedy).


satire

en-noun

satire (countable and uncountable, plural satires)

From Middle French satire, from Old French, from Latin satira, from earlier satura, from lanx satura (“full dish”), from feminine of satur. Altered in Latin by influence of Ancient Greek σάτυρος (sáturos, “satyr”), on the mistaken notion that the form is related to the Greek σατυρικόν δράμα (saturikón dráma, “satyr drama”).

(uncountable) A literary device of writing or art which principally ridicules its subject often as an intended means of provoking or preventing change or highlighting a shortcoming in the work of another. Imitation, humor, irony, and exaggeration are often used to aid this.


comedy

comedy (countable and uncountable, plural comedies)

drama

antonym(s) of “light, humorous, or satirical work”

→ Japanese: コメディ (komedi)

→ Korean: 코미디 (komidi)

From Middle English comedie, from Middle French comedie, from Latin cōmoedia, from Ancient Greek κωμῳδία (kōmōidía), from κῶμος (kômos, “revel, carousing”) + either ᾠδή (ōidḗ, “song”) or ἀοιδός (aoidós, “singer, bard”), both from ἀείδω (aeídō, “I sing”). Doublet of commedia.

comedie

often affected as such for humorous effect

A Midsummer Night's Dream is among Shakespeare's most famous comedies.

(countable) a light, amusing play with a happy ending

комедия

(countable, drama) a dramatic work that is light and humorous or satirical in tone


climax

climax (countable and uncountable, plural climaxes or (rare) climaces)

climaxes (plural)
climaces (plural rare)

From Latin clīmax, from Ancient Greek κλῖμαξ (klîmax, “ladder, staircase, [rhetorical] climax”), from κλίνω (klínō, “I lean, slant”).

bor

As a trafficker in climaxes and thrills and characterization and wonderful dialogue and suspense and confrontations, I had outlined the Dresden story many times.

1969 March 31, Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., chapter 1, in Slaughterhouse-Five […] (A Seymour Lawrence Book), New York, N.Y.: Delacorte Press, →OCLC, page 4:

(narratology) The culmination of a narrative's rising action, the turning point.

кулминация

turning point in a plot or dramatic action


lines

I have yet to learn my lines.

(film, theater) Words spoken by the actors.


points

In my concentrated week at Stratford I found that, although as a theatregoer for decades I could not help marking what the old actors called 'points' now and again, […]

1977, Drama: The quarterly theatre review, numbers 124-131, page 16:

The nineteenth century acting technique of making points was encouraged by the dramaturgy of the melodramas which dominated the stage. The style was in fact difficult to avoid in many popular plays.

2014, Amy Lehman, Victorian Women and the Theatre of Trance, page 21:

(theater) Exaggerated speech or gestures used for emphasis during a performance.


tormentor

From Anglo-Norman tourmentour, from Old French tormenteor.

Then Nathan Eldred, gently pushing, was muttering, ‘On you go, dear. Good luck!’ and she was edging between the tormentor and the backing flats, in front of the curtain, holding her small hands out to the sudden-silenced audience […]

1940, Sinclair Lewis, chapter 24, in Bethel Merriday, London: Jonathan Cape, page 241:

(theater) One of a pair of narrow curtains just behind the front curtain and teaser that mask the areas on the sides of the stage and can be adjusted to the desired width.


spoof

en-noun

spoof (countable and uncountable, plural spoofs)

Coined by the English comedian Arthur Roberts (1852–1933) in 1884 as the name of a card game involving deception and nonsense.

On Broadway, where it opened in 1949, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes was a spoof of the madcap Twenties which gave Carol Channing her first starring role; on the screen, it was an up-to-date spoof of sex which gave Marilyn Monroe her first starring role in a musical.

1999 August, Stanley Green, Elaine Schmidt, “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes”, in Hollywood Musicals Year by Year, 2nd edition, Milwaukee, Wis.: Hal Leonard Corporation, →ISBN, page 177:

The final piece of the country puzzle is found at the corner of Brisbane Street and Kable Avenue, where the Hands of Fame cornerstone bears the palm-prints of more country greats. A glorious spoof, the Noses of Fame memorial, can be savoured over a beer at the Tattersalls Hotel on Peel Street.

2003, Margo Daly, Anne Dehne, David Leffman, Chris Scott, “New South Wales and ACT”, in The Rough Guide to Australia, 6th edition, New York, N.Y., London: Rough Guides, →ISBN, pages 330–331:


open sesame

Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves
Antoine Galland
One Thousand and One Nights

From its use in Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, translating French Sésame, ouvre-toi in Antoine Galland's version of the Ali Baba story in the One Thousand and One Nights, possibly based on an oral Arabic source.
Not, as some have purported, a corruption of Open, says me!.


flog

en-verb

flog (third-person singular simple present flogs, present participle flogging, simple past and past participle flogged)

flogs (present singular third-person)
flogging (participle present)
flogged (participle past)
flogged (past)

From Middle English *floggen (suggested by flogge (“hammer, sledge”), from Old English *floggian, a stem variant of Proto-Germanic *flukkōną (“to beat”), itself a secondary zero-grade iterative with unetymological -u-, derived from *flōkaną.
The original zero-grade iterative *flakkōną had been misinterpreted as an o-grade. See flack (“to beat”), also as a dialectal noun "a blow, slap". Cognate with Scots flog (“a blow, stripe, flogging”, noun), Scots flog (“thin strip of wood”), Norwegian flak (“a piece torn off, strip”).
Alternatively, a back-formation from flogger, from Low German flogger (“a flail”).

cog

(theater) To beat away charcoal dust etc. using a flogger.


stock character

en-noun

stock character (plural stock characters)

(writing, theater, film) Any fictional character drawn from some stereotype who is instantly recognizable.

ամպլուա

fictional character based on a recognizable stereotype


hamartia

hamartia (usually uncountable, plural hamartias)

/ˌhæˌmɑɹˈtiː.ə/

/ˌhɑːˌmɑɹˈtiː.ə/

From Ancient Greek ἁμαρτία (hamartía, “tragic failure, sinful nature”), from the verb ἁμαρτάνω (hamartánō, “to miss the mark”).

der

Creon's main hamartia was his excessive pride.

Understanding hamartia as “ignorance of the injurious act,” Lacan distinguishes Greek tragedy from the Renaissance version on the basis that the latter supplants hamartia with the hero's privileged knowledge.

2006, David Ratmoko, On Spectrality: Fantasies of Redemption in the Western Canon, Peter Lang, →ISBN, page 71:

The plot and the tragic figure at its center, destroyed through an act of hamartia, should be tailored to the production of pity and fear. Oedipus is not so much a person as he is a hamartia delivery system, a moving, empty center within the motions of the play, who through his vulnerability to hamartia and its disastrous consequences reveals the pitiable and the fearful to the audience.

2008, Daniel Greenspan, The Passion of Infinity: Kierkegaard, Aristotle and the Rebirth of Tragedy, Walter de Gruyter, →ISBN, page 81:

But ever since the concept of "hamartia" recurred through Aristotle's Poetics, in an attempt to describe man's ingrained iniquity, our impulse has been to identify a telling defect in those brought suddenly and dramatically low.

2014 October 21, Oliver Brown, “Oscar Pistorius jailed for five years […] ”, in The Daily Telegraph (Sport):

(Greek drama) The tragic flaw of the protagonist in a literary tragedy.


sarky

en-adj

sarky (comparative sarkier, superlative sarkiest)

sarkier (comparative)
sarkiest (superlative)

Full of Coxon's trademark sarky lyricism, this 14-track concept album celebrates and laments the bittersweet nature of love, avoiding being dull or mawkish by being so gorgeous and satisfyingly coherent.

2006 February 19, Nosheen Iqbal, “Graham Coxon, Love Travels at Illegal Speeds”, in The Observer:

It would seem that during his Bournemouth team’s recent 2-1 defeat at Sheffield United, referee Jon Moss gave the hosts some “soft fouls” and made “little sarky comments” that “didn’t help”.

2020 February 12, Scott Murray, “Dan Gosling, Jon Moss and breath-freshening hard candy”, in The Guardian:

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, informal) Sarcastic.


black box

black box
black box#History
flight recorder#Terminology
gray-box testing
white box (software engineering)

* Since circa 1945 in both main senses (that is, event recorders and objects with unknown innards), which are historically related to each other; for details, see black box § History and flight recorder § Terminology.
* (type of theater): Such theaters are often painted black.

(drama) A type of theater characterized by a lack of decoration or complex mechanisms.


lantern

→ Bengali: লন্ঠন (lonṭhon)

Hindi: लालटेन (lālṭen)

→ Irish: laindéar

→ Malay: lentera

Indonesian: lentera

→ Telugu: లాంతరు (lāntaru)

From Middle English lanterne (13th century), via Old French lanterne from Latin lanterna (“lantern”), itself a corruption of Ancient Greek λαμπτήρ (lamptḗr, “torch”) (see lamp, λάμπω (lámpō)) by influence of Latin lucerna (“lamp”). The spelling lanthorn was current during the 16th to 19th centuries and originates with a folk etymology associating the word with the use of horn as translucent cover. For the verb, compare French lanterner to hang at the lamppost. Displaced native Old English lēohtfæt (literally “light-container”).

ncog

(theater) Especially, a metal casing with lens used to illuminate a stage (e.g. spotlight, floodlight).


Columbia

From Columbus + -ia, the Latinized name of the European explorer, Christopher Columbus. Piecewise doublet of Colombia.

census-designated place
census-designated place

A census-designated place in Tuolumne County, California.

Several places in the United States.
A town in Tolland County, Connecticut.

Several places in the United States.
A town in Herkimer County, New York.

Tuscarawas County
Tuscarawas County#English

An unincorporated community in Tuscarawas County, Ohio.

An unincorporated community in Fluvanna County, Virginia.


cliffhanger

From cliff + hanger, evoking the image of someone left hanging from a cliff, thereby having an uncertain fate.
The term "cliffhanger" is considered to have originated with the serialised version of Thomas Hardy's "A Pair of Blue Eyes", published in Tinsley's Magazine in the 1870s, in which the character Henry Knight is left hanging off of a cliff. It was inspired by a real life story from his wife Emma's childhood, when she had to rescue one of her school friends from a similar position.

Back in the early 80s, the hit series Dallas kept the nation guessing with its season-ending cliffhanger "Who Shot J.R.?"

2007 July 2, Hilary Hylton, “Filming Texas in a Good Light”, in Time, archived from the original on 2009-03-15:

(narratology) An ending or stopping point calculated to leave a story unresolved, in order to create suspense.

cliffhanger

(narratology) an ending or stopping point

This presidential election is such a cliffhanger. Will it be the rising star Dmitry "Obamovich" Medvedev? Or the veteran Gennady "McCainovich" Zyuganov?

February 28 2008, Timothy Garton Ash, “Russia has run rings round the west”, in Guardian, retrieved 2009-02-02:

(by extension) An outcome which is awaited with keen anticipation, especially one which is delayed for a period of time or which is not known until the last minute.


jog

Late Middle English, of uncertain origin. Originally with the meaning of "to shake up and down".
Perhaps an early alteration of English shog (“to jolt, shake; depart, go”), from Middle English shoggen, schoggen (“to shake up and down, jog”), from Middle Dutch schocken (“to jolt, bounce”) or Middle Low German schoggen, schocken (“to shog”), ultimately from Proto-West Germanic *skokkan (“to move, shake, tremble”). More at shock.
Alternatively from Middle English joggen, a variant of jaggen (“to pierce, prod, stir up, arouse”) (see jag).

der

This angle is somewhat more acute than that of the right and left walls of the Western box set; but unlike the walls of the box set, the Kabuki wall is never broken up by a jog or by a succession of jogs.

1974, Earle Ernst, The Kabuki Theatre, page 143:

(theater) A flat placed perpendicularly to break up a flat surface.


John Bull

In spite of these promptings to reflection, ignorance of his neighbours is the character of the typical John Bull. His is a domineering nature, steady in fight, imperious to command, but neither curious nor quick about the life of others.

1887, Robert Louis Stevenson, “The Foreigner At Home”, in Memories and Portraits, New York: Charles Scribner, page 3:

Thatched cottages, manors, old mills, venerable churches and wooded lanes personify a John Bull fancy, neatly tucked into gentle hill folds.

2005, David W. Moore, The Other British Isles, →ISBN, page 183:

Next door to all that noble intention stood a bluff old John Bull of a hotel, Warners, now a pub and backpackers, and next to that, until 1993, a cinema, the last of several that had sprung up around the Square as temples of modernity.

2015, Fiona Farrell, The Villa at the Edge of the Empire, →ISBN, page 52:

(by extension) Something or someone that is stereotypically English.


Johnny Reb

From the sense of Johnny as a placeholder name for any man and reb, US slang for a Confederate citizen or soldier.

Confederate States of America
Confederate States of America

(historical, colloquial) Synonym of Confederate: a citizen of the Confederate States of America, particularly a Confederate soldier.


Johnny Reb

When Lincoln heard the news about the fall,
All the folks thought he'd throw a great vict'ry ball,
But he asked the band to play the song "Dixie"
For you, Johnny Reb, and all that you believe.

Confederate States of America
Confederate States of America#English

(figurative) Synonym of Confederate States of America.


opera house

A theatre, or similar building, primarily used for staging opera.


caption

Borrowed from Latin captiō (“deception, fraud”), from the past participle of capiō (“I take, I seize”) (English capture). Compare Middle English capcioun (“seizure, capture”).

cog

(theater, performance production) By analogy, text in a similar system used in a performance venue for transcription of a live event.

(cinematography, television) A piece of text appearing on screen as a subtitle or other part of a film or broadcast, describing dialogue (and sometimes other sound) for viewers who cannot hear.

надписи

piece of text appearing on screen as part of a film or broadcast

sous-titrage pour sourds et malentendants


opener

オープナー

baseball pitcher who starts the game, but is planned to have a short outing

(theater) The first act in a variety show or concert.


gracioso

From Spanish gracioso. Doublet of gracious and grazioso.

I ſhall never ceaſe to wonder that the Engliſh, who are certainly a ſenſible and diſcerning people ſhould be ſo much infatuated, as to applaud and careſs with the moſt extravagant approbation, not to ſay adoration and regard, one or two gracioſo's, who, I will be bold to ſay, would ſcarce be able to earn their bread by their talents, on any other theatre under the ſun.

1751, [Tobias] Smollett, chapter LV, in The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle […], volume II, London: Harrison and Co., […], →OCLC, pages 137–138:

(theater) A clown or jester in early-modern Spanish comedy.


supernumerary

From Late Latin supernumerarius (“extra soldier added to a legion; supernumerary”), from super (“above; beyond”) + numerus (“number; collection, quantity”) + -ārius (suffix forming adjectives from nouns or numerals). The word is analysable as super- + numeral + -ary.

refn

From Joseph C. Hughes (1897 September) “Supernumerary Finger Growing from First Metacarpal Bone”, in James Moores Ball, editor, Tri-State Medical Journal and Practitioner, volume IV, number 9, St. Louis, Mo.: [s.n.] 3509 Franklin Avenue, →OCLC, figure 2, page 436.

bor

[A] minor actor or supernumerary often has a better opportunity to watch great actors than the great actors themselves.

1983, H[endrik] B[rugt] G[erhard] Casimir, “Introduction”, in Haphazard Reality: Half a Century of Science (A Sloan Foundation Book), New York, N.Y.: Harper and Row, →ISBN; republished Amsterdam: Amsterdam Academic Archive, Amsterdam University Press, 2010, →ISBN, page 1:

Though little is known about Noble Luke Usher before his first recorded performance in Washington, D.C., in 1800, it is certain that he made the rounds of the eastern theatres as a supernumerary before as well as after that year.

2009, West T. Hill, Jr., “The First Western Circuit”, in The Theatre in Early Kentucky 1790–1820, paperback edition, Lexington, Ky.: University Press of Kentucky, →ISBN, page 72:

(film, theater) An extra or walk-on, often non-speaking, in a film or play; a spear carrier.


slapstick

en-noun

slapstick (countable and uncountable, plural slapsticks)

From slap + stick, calque of Italian batacchio. The pair of sticks was used by the comic character Harlequin in the commedia dell'arte.

(uncountable, comedy) A style of humor focusing on physical comedy, such as slipping on a banana peel, and with foolish characters who get into humiliating situations.


Merry Andrew

Originally associated with a specific act at Bartholomew Fair; later said to have come from the name of Andrew Boorde.

Instead, therefore, of answering my landlady, the puppet-show man ran out to punish his Merry-Andrew [...]

1749, Henry Fielding, Tom Jones, Folio Society, published 1973, page 438:

The games of the circus—the wild-beast fight and the gladiators, the rope-dancers, the merry-andrews, and the posture-masters,—were more to their taste than clever intrigue and brilliant dialogue.

1873, William Lucas Collins, chapter III, in Plautus and Terence, page 31:

One of them, the eldest, was a sort of merry andrew and was not above dressing the part with a weird cap of jackal's skin with many hanging tails and tassels.

1974, Lawrence Durrell, Monsieur, Faber & Faber, published 1992, page 155:

(idiomatic) A person who clowns publicly; a buffoon; an entertainer's assistant.


jocose

en-adj

jocose (comparative more jocose, superlative most jocose)

more jocose (comparative)
most jocose (superlative)

From Latin iocōsus (“humorous”), from iocus (“jest, joke”).

Adde to this diſsipated and diſtracted ſtate of Miniſters, their private diſtreſſes and poverties, together with the publick neglect and indifferency of people toward them; who can wonder if they look pitifully one on another, which no jocoſe or juvenile drolings can relieve?

1659, John Gauden, chapter XXXI, in Ίερα Δακρυα [Hiera dakrya]. Ecclesiae Anglicanae Suspiria. The Tears, Sighs, Complaints, and Prayers of the Church of England: […], London: Printed by J[ohn] G[rismond] for R[ichard] Royston, […], →OCLC, book II (Searching the Causes and Occasions of the Church of England’s Decayes), page 251:

Jocose flesh-eaters take a malicious delight in pointing out and enumerating to Vegetarians the many animal substances now in common use, and in taunting them with inconsistency in using them.

1886, Henry S. Salt, “VII: On Certain Fallacies”, in A Plea for Vegetarianism and Other Essays, page 80:

The American people, / With grins jocose, / Always survive the fatal dose.

1941, Ogden Nash, “Look What You Did, Christopher!”, in The Face Is Familiar, Garden City Publishing Company, page 223:


smart aleck

Aleck is a nickname for the male given name Alexander. The phrase "smart aleck" is possibly derived from the name of Aleck Hoag, a 19th-century American con man and thief.

One who is given to obnoxious or insolent humor.


wiseacre

From Middle Dutch wijssegger (“soothsayer”), from Old High German wīzzago, wīzago (“wise man, prophet, soothsayer”), from Proto-West Germanic *wītagō (“wise one; prophet”). Cognate with Old English wītga (“wise man, prophet”). See also German Weissager (“soothsayer, seer”).

der

That other class of wiseacres who twist prophecy in such a manner as to make it promise the destruction and desolation of the same city, use judgement just as bad, since the city is in a very flourishing condition now, unhappily for them.

1869, Mark Twain, the Innocents Abroad, Random House, published 2003, pages 298–299:

One who feigns knowledge or cleverness; one who is wisecracking; an insolent upstart.


big top

He had been a big top performer in his youth, but in a twist of fate he had run away to become an investment banker.

(by extension) The circus; the circus lifestyle.


witty

en-adj

witty (comparative wittier, superlative wittiest)

wittier (comparative)
wittiest (superlative)

From Middle English witty, witti, from Old English wittiġ, witiġ, ġewittiġ (“clever, wise”), from Proto-West Germanic *witīg, *witag, from Proto-Germanic *witagaz, *wītagaz (“knowing, wise, clever”), equivalent to wit + -y. Cognate with Middle Low German wittich, gewittich (“knowing, clever, wise, understanding”), German witzig (“funny, witty”), Norwegian Bokmål vettig, Norwegian Nynorsk vittig (“witty”).

His frequent quips mark him as particularly witty.


pancake

en-noun

pancake (countable and uncountable, plural pancakes)

→ Cantonese: 班戟 (baan¹ gik¹)

→ Mandarin: 班戟 (bānjǐ)

→ Cebuano: pankeyk

→ French: pancake

→ German: Pancake

desc

→ Hijazi Arabic: بانكيك (bānkēk, pānkēk)

→⇒ Irish: pancóg

→ Japanese: パンケーキ (pankēki)

→⇒ Khmer: នំផេនខេក (num pheenkheek)

→ Korean: 팬케이크 (paenkeikeu)

→ Nauruan: epankeik

→ Portuguese: panqueca, (dated) panqueque, (dated) pancake

→ Russian: панкейк (pankejk)

→ Spanish: (Argentina, Chile, Ecuador, Peru, Uruguay) panqueque, (Costa Rica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Puerto Rico) pancake, (Venezuela) panqueca

→ Thai: แพนเค้ก (pɛɛn-kéek)

→ Turkish: pankek

→ Azerbaijani: pankek

→ Yoruba: pan̄kéèkì

Inherited from Middle English pancake, panne cake, pankake, ponkake, equivalent to pan + cake.
Perhaps adapted from Middle Low German pankôke, pannekôke, from Old Saxon *pannakōko (suggested by derivatives Old Saxon pannakōkilo and pannakōkilīn), where the compound is much older; compare Old High German phankuohho (8th century), whence Middle High German phankuoche, German Pfannkuchen (“pancake”); further
Saterland Frisian Ponkouke, Ponkuuke (“pancake”), West Frisian pankoek (“pancake”), Dutch pannenkoek (“pancake”), German Low German Pannkook (“pancake”).
The juggling sense is by analogy with a pancake being tossed in a pan.

And us, me wearing pancake with my eyebrows recently plucked archly, done by Little Amber, the beauty-school student quean, in Bryant Park.

1984 April 14, Freddie Greenfield, “Spoiling the View”, in Gay Community News, page 19:

(uncountable, theater) A kind of makeup, consisting of a thick layer of a compressed powder.


witticism

From witty + -icism; coined in the 1670s by John Dryden, by analogy to criticism.

"Take any shape but that!" is what I always feel tempted to exclaim when dulness attempts a joke; striving to pervert some poor innocent and ill-used word from its lawful meaning till it ceases to have any at all—worrying some unfortunate idea till, like the hunted hare, it is worried to death—dealing in witticisms whose edge has long since been worn off by constant use; and truly to the many, witticisms not only require to be explained, like riddles, but are also like new shoes, which people require to wear many times before they get accustomed to them.

1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XVIII, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume III, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 151:

Shock of the witticism is a powerful one; while mere fun will have no power over them if it jar on their moral taste.

1883, George Eliot, chapter 4, in The Essays of George Eliot:

While the occasional wry witticism seeps through, overall Shipler is painfully conscientious about trying to offer both sides of any debate.

2015, Hans Rollman, “Freedom of Speech: It’s Complicated”, in PopMatters:


coxcomb

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-coxcomb.wav

(historical) The cap of a court jester, adorned with a red stripe.


probe

For verb: borrowed from Latin probare (“to test, examine, prove”), from probus (“good”). Doublet of prove.
For noun: borrowed from Late Latin proba (“a proof”), from probare (“to test, examine, prove”); Doublet of proof. Compare Spanish tienta (“a surgeon's probe”), from tentar (“try, test”); see tempt.

сонда

any of various medical instruments used to explore wounds, organs, etc

You know, XR178.9, we haven't done any anal probes in a while.

2004 August 2, Bayard Russell, nonemorecomic:

You listen here! We don't do anal probes like other aliens, but I'm about to make an exception!

2009 September 14, Ryan Hudson, “Can I Abduct You?”, in ChannelATE:

(surgery) Any of various medical instruments used to explore wounds, organs, etc.

(comedy, fiction) An anal probe, a fictional instrument commonly used by aliens on abducted humans.


upstage

From up- + stage. The figurative uses “haughty” and “to draw attention away” derive from actors moving to a higher and thus more visible position on a sloped stage.

(theater) The part of a stage that is farthest from the audience or camera.


upstage

en-verb

upstage (third-person singular simple present upstages, present participle upstaging, simple past and past participle upstaged)

upstages (present singular third-person)
upstaging (participle present)
upstaged (participle past)
upstaged (past)

(transitive, theater) To force other actors to face away from the audience by staying upstage.


Monty Python

A former British comedy troupe known for surreal and absurd comedy.


villainy

en-noun

villainy (countable and uncountable, plural villainies)

From Middle English vileinie, vileynye, from Anglo-Norman vilenie, from Old French vilanie.

Mos Eisley spaceport- you will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy. We must be cautious.

1977, Star Wars, spoken by Obi-Wan Kenobi (Alec Guinness):

(uncountable) Evil or wicked character or behaviour.

(uncountable, obsolete) Ill-treatment, indignity, degrading or shameful treatment of someone.

(uncountable, obsolete) The state of being a villein or serf, and by extension servitude or low estate in life.

(uncountable, obsolete) Boorishness, rudeness, bad cultivation or manners.


soliloquy

soliloquy (countable and uncountable, plural soliloquies)

Augustine of Hippo
Hamlet
Soliloquiorum libri duo
To be, or not to be
William Shakespeare

1595–1605; From Late Latin sōliloquium in the title of St. Augustine's Soliloquiorum libri duo ("Two Books of Soliloquies"), from sōlus (“only, sole”) + loquor (“I speak”).

Coordinate term: aside

At the end of the second act the main villain gave a soliloquy detailing his plans to attack the protagonist.

Yet if I were to say […] that Hamlet's soliloquy had been much over-rated, it would not be said, on this account, that I was unable to appreciate Shakespeare.

1901, Edmund Selous, Bird Watching, J.M. Dent & Co, London, Chapter XII: Watching Blackbirds, Nightingales, Sand-martins, etc., page 315:

(drama) The act of a character speaking to themselves so as to reveal their thoughts to the audience.


come-on

Deverbal from come on to. First use appears c. 1897, in the publications of Edward W. Townsend. See cite below.

When the public no longer rushed to the box-office to buy such synthetic exaltations of the spirit, pitchmen like Jerome K. Jerome and the aforesaid Kennedy got out their theopathic apparatus and had at the trade with elixirs in which actors, their faces chalked into a pallor exceeding Nicky Arnstein's, were programmed as A Stranger, A Wayfarer, or Manson and, by conducting themselves for the major portion of two hours like overly verbose and objectionable pallbearers, peculiarly persuaded the come-ons that they were replicas of Christ and that the rest of the cast, a bunch of low-lifes, were converted to the faith by them.

1975, George Jean Nathan, Charles Angoff, The Theatre Book of the Year, 1942-1943, page 82:

(theater, slang) A bad actor whose talents do not extend far beyond walking onto the stage.


conscience

conscience (countable and uncountable, plural consciences)

From Middle English conscience, from Old French conscience, from Latin conscientia (“knowledge within oneself”), from consciens, present participle of conscire (“to know, to be conscious (of wrong)”), from com- (“together”) + scire (“to know”).

der

(chiefly fiction, narratology) A personification of the moral sense of right and wrong, usually in the form of a person, a being or merely a voice that gives moral lessons and advices.


humorous

en-adj

humorous (comparative more humorous, superlative most humorous)

more humorous (comparative)
most humorous (superlative)

From Middle English humorous (compare Medieval Latin hūmorōsus), equivalent to humor + -ous.

The waiters were so humorous - one even did a backflip for us, when we asked him.

Full of humor or arousing laughter; funny.

snaaks

full of humor or arousing laughter; funny

[S]uch is now the Duke's condition
That he misconstrues all that you have done.
The Duke is humorous; what he is, indeed,
More suits you to conceive than I to speak of.

c. 1598–1600 (date written), William Shakespeare, “As You Like It”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii], lines 380-83:

It is a melancholy humor[…]that firſt put this humorous conceipt [translating resverie] of writing into my head.

1603, Michel de Montaigne, “Of the affection of fathers to their children”, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC, page 212:

I felt at this time as if I could have been fond of him too, if he would have let me; but I was timid from my childhood, and before long my dread of his displeasure […] conquered my humorous inclination to love one who was so handsome, so accomplished, so indulgent and devoted.

1861, Elizabeth Gaskell, The Grey Woman:

(obsolete) Dependent on or caused by one's humour or mood; capricious, whimsical.


superhero

From super- + hero. First attested in 1917.

Hobbes: Super heroes wear snow pants?
Stupendous Man: When there's snow out, they do!

1990 February 13, Bill Watterson, Calvin & Hobbes (comic):

Any fictional crime-fighting character, often with supernatural powers or equipment, in popular children's and fantasy literature; a fictional hero who does great things.

супергеро́й

a fictional crime-fighting character with superpowers

The power is out but you're watching TV? You must be a superhero.

Thanks for driving out here and towing me out of the ditch. You're a superhero!

Did you know your community has many invisible superheroes? Each day they perform hundreds of amazing feats that make the community a better place in which to live.

1991, Boys' Life, volume 81, number 1, page 42:

(by extension) A particularly renowned real-world hero, or one who has seemingly impossible abilities.


sarcastic

sarcastic (comparative more sarcastic, superlative most sarcastic)

more sarcastic (comparative)
most sarcastic (superlative)

a sarcastic quip

the teacher's sarcastic tone

The unhappy Jew eyed their countenances and that of Front-de-Bœuf, in hope of discovering some symptoms of relenting; but that of the Baron exhibited the same cold, half-sullen, half-sarcastic smile which had been the prelude to his cruelty; […]

1819 December 20 (indicated as 1820), Walter Scott, Ivanhoe; a Romance. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co. […], →OCLC:

The sarcastic bitterness of his conversation disgusted those who were more inclined to accuse his licentiousness than their own degeneracy, and who were unable to conceive the strength of those emotions which are concealed by the jests of the wretched, and by the follies of the wise.

1850, Thomas Babington Macaulay, Machiavelli:

He smiled to himself, and threw a glance of fine sarcastic meaning towards Hepzibah.

1851 April 9, Nathaniel Hawthorne, The House of the Seven Gables, a Romance, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor, Reed, and Fields:

In men’s clubs such celebrations were, though expiring, less uncommon; but either the natural shyness of the softer sex, or a sarcastic attitude on the part of male relatives, had denuded such women’s clubs as remained (if any other did) or this their glory and consummation.

1891, Thomas Hardy, chapter II, in Tess of the d’Urbervilles: A Pure Woman Faithfully Presented […], volume I, London: James R[ipley] Osgood, McIlvaine and Co., […], →OCLC:

Her eyes slanted a little... and were sometimes full of fiery determination and sometimes dull and opaque. Her expression was never altogether amiable; was often, indeed, distinctly sullen, or, when she was animated, sarcastic.

(of a person) Having the personality trait of expressing sarcasm.


poetic justice

/pəʊˌɛtɪk ˈd͡ʒʌstɪs/

From poetic + justice, a variant of poetical justice, coined by the English literary critic Thomas Rymer (c. 1643 – 1713) in the work The Tragedies of the Last Age Consider’d and Examin’d (1678): see the quotation.

coinage

For though historical Juſtice might reſt there; yet poetical Juſtice could not be ſo content. It vvould require that the ſatisfaction be compleat and full, e're the Malefactor goes off the Stage, and nothing left to God Almighty, and another VVorld.

[1678, Thomas Rymer, “The Tragedy of Rollo Duke of Normandy”, in The Tragedies of the Last Age Consider’d and Examin‘d […], London: […] Richard Tonson […], →OCLC, page 26:

Poetic Juſtice, vvith her lifted ſcale; / VVhere in nice balance, truth vvith gold ſhe vveighs, / And ſolid pudding againſt empty praiſe.

1728, [Alexander Pope], “Book the First”, in The Dunciad. An Heroic Poem. […], Dublin, London: […] A. Dodd, →OCLC, page 3, lines 40–42:

[T]he great object [of a comedy] is to cauſe a hearty laugh, in the accompliſhment of vvhich, the rules of the drama and the exerciſe of reaſon are often held in defiance; at the ſame time that poetic juſtice is carefully adminiſtered, and the vices of human nature are held up to merited execration.

1798 December, “Theatre. [Review of Laugh When You Can by Frederic Reynolds.]”, in The Universal Magazine of Knowledge and Pleasure: […], volume CIII, London: […] W. Bent, […], →OCLC, page 424:

[W]e cannot expect, nor does poetic justice allow, that a man shall act contary to his own nature through any force of will.

1894, Charles W. Hodell, “Shakespeare’s Opening Scenes as Striking the Key-note of Dramatic Action and Motive”, in Charlotte Porter, Helen A[rchibald] Clarke, editors, Poet Lore: A Magazine of Letters, volume VI, numbers 6–7, [Philadelphia, Pa.: Poet-Lore Co.]; New York, N.Y.: AMS Reprint Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 345:

Literary history, not to mention countless Grade B movies and television serials, teaches us that poetic justice is a standard formula for popular entertainment. […] Since very few people learn their morality from the theater, the enduring appeal of poetic justice must come from the fact that it satisfies needs that go much deeper than simple moral improvement. We can begin to get an insight into these needs by recognizing that poetic justice is a conscious or unconscious imitation of ideal justice.

1969, O[sborne] B[ennett] Hardison [Jr.], “Three Types of Renaissance Catharsis”, in Renaissance Drama, volume 2 (New Series), Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern University Press, →ISSN, →JSTOR, →OCLC, section II, page 9; republished in Arthur F. Kinney, editor, Poetics and Praxis, Understanding and Imagination: The Collected Essays of O. B. Hardison Jr., Athens, Ga., London: University of Georgia Press, 1997, →ISBN, part 2 (Poetics), page 83:

poetical justice
poetical justice#English

(narratology) Synonym of poetical justice (“the idea that in a literary work such as a poem, virtue should be rewarded and vice punished”)


Joe Bloggs

(Australia) A fictitious name used in legal documents for an unknown or anonymous male person.


Uncle Sam

/ˌʌŋkl̩ ˈsæm/

/ˌʌŋkəl ˈsæm/

From uncle + Sam (diminutive of the male name Samuel), probably based on the initialism U.S. of the United States. While folk etymology suggests that the term was named after Samuel Wilson (1766–1854), a meat packer from Troy, New York, who supplied the United States Army with canned meat during the War of 1812 between the United States and the United Kingdom, the Oxford English Dictionary notes there is no evidence that this is the case.

compound

Uncle Sam needs brave men and women to enlist in the Army.

(colloquial, originally US) A personification of the United States federal government or (rare) citizens.

James Montgomery Flagg
Oxford English Dictionary
Samuel Wilson
United States Army
War of 1812

اَلْعَمّ سَام

personification of the United States federal government or citizens


AYBABTU

all your base are belong to us
all your base are belong to us#English

(Internet slang) Initialism of all your base are belong to us.


theater

en-noun

theater (countable and uncountable, plural theaters)

(US, Canada, Southern American English) -iːtə(ɹ)

From Middle English theater, theatre, from Old French theatre, from Latin theatrum, from Ancient Greek θέατρον (théatron, “a place for viewing”), from θεάομαι (theáomai, “to see", "to watch", "to observe”). Doublet of tiatr.

theatre

standard spelling in all English-speaking countries that use British spelling

A place or building, consisting of a stage and seating, in which an audience gathers to watch plays, musical performances, public ceremonies, and so on.

His grandfather was in the Pacific theater during the war.

Percy had been too big for the town since he got back from the war. He served in the Pacific theater, behind the lines keeping up the supply chain.

2019, Colson Whitehead, The Nickel Boys, Fleet, page 69:

A region where a particular action takes place; a specific field of action, usually with reference to war.

This man is about to die, get him into theater at once!

(medicine) An operating theatre or locale for human experimentation.

I worked in theater for twenty-five years.

Drama or performance as a profession or art form.

مَسْرَح

drama or performance as a profession or artform


unity

en-noun

unity (countable and uncountable, plural unities)

George B. McClellan
George Meade
Ulysses S. Grant
William Rosecrans
William Tecumseh Sherman
unity

Etymology tree
Middle English unite
English unity
From Middle English unite, from Anglo-Norman, Old French unité, from Latin ūnitās, from ūnus (“one”) + noun of state suffix -itās, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *óynos (“one, single”), hence distantly related to one and an. Displaced native Old English ānnes (literally “oneness”).

der

(drama) Any of the three classical rules of drama: unity of action (nothing should be admitted not directly relevant to the development of the plot), unity of place (the scenes should be set in the same place), and unity of time (all the events should be such as might happen within a single day).

eenheid

drama: any of the three classical rules of drama


Joe Sixpack

(Internet slang) Somebody without particular expertise or interest in computers or the Internet; a nontechie.


punch line

1910s, probably American. It was probably meant to be likened to a quick, sharp punch.

The final, the Munich-based liberal newspaper writes, was a “fitting punchline” to a great tournament.

2014 July 14, Philip Oltermann, “World Cup final press reaction: Germany’s win a ‘fitting punchline’”, in The Guardian:

(by extension) A final, concluding statement that an explanation has been leading up to; a conclusion.


proscenium

en-noun

proscenium (plural prosceniums or proscenia)

From Latin proscaenium (“in front of the scenery”), from Ancient Greek προσκήνιον (proskḗnion), from πρό (pró, “before”) + σκηνή (skēnḗ, “scene building”).

uder

It looks like a film, a meticulous, detailed, visually balanced wide-screen Wes Anderson one. There’s no proscenium, no stage, no wings, no audience.

2023 June 15, Manohla Dargis, “‘Asteroid City’ Review: Our Town and Country”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

(in a modern theater) The stage area between the curtain and the orchestra.

авансце́на

modern theatre: stage area between the curtain and the orchestra

(in an ancient theater) The stage area immediately in front of the scene building.

prosceni

ancient theatre: stage area immediately in front of the scene building

The front of the scene-building and of the parascenia came to be decorated with a row of columns, the proscenium (πρό, "before"+σκηνή).

1936, Roy C. Flickinger, The Greek Theater and Its Drama, 4th edition, page 58:

(in an ancient theater) The row of columns at the front the scene building, at first directly behind the circular orchestra but later upon a stage.

prosceni

ancient theatre: row of columns at the front the scene building


script

en-noun

script (countable and uncountable, plural scripts)

From Middle English scrit, borrowed from Old French escrit, from Latin scriptum (something written), from scrībō (“write”).

(countable) The written document containing the dialogue and action for a drama; the text of a stage play, movie, or other performance. Especially, the final form used for the performance itself.

سِينَارْيُو

text of the dialogue and action for a drama

(computing) A file containing a list of user commands, allowing them to be invoked once to execute in sequence.

(linguistics) A system of writing adapted to a particular language or set of languages.


Melpomene

Borrowed from Ancient Greek Μελπομένη (Melpoménē), from μέλπω (mélpō, “to sing”).


anagnorisis

en-noun

anagnorisis (countable and uncountable, plural anagnorises)

Learned borrowing from Ancient Greek ἀναγνώρισις (anagnṓrisis), from ἀναγνωρίζειν (anagnōrízein, “to recognise, discover”).

lbor

His heroines never have a true anagnorisis because the moral fault is never in themselves, only in outside conspirators.

The moment in the plot of a drama in which the hero makes a discovery that explains previously unexplained events or situations; a denouement.

anagnorisis

moment in the plot when a character makes a critical discovery


top banana

He was hilarious, and remained the top banana on the tour for years.

(idiomatic, dated) The principal comedian in a vaudeville or burlesque show.


coulisse

A side scene of the stage in a theater or the space between the side scenes.


deathtrap

A plot device where a villain in a story puts a hero in an elaborate dangerous situation for the purposes of attempting a sadistic murder.


behind the scenes

Many videos come with features that show what went on behind the scenes to make the movie and special effects.

(idiomatic, theater, film) behind the scenery and stage area; backstage; among the actors; during the production or rehearsal


Althea

From Althaia or Althaea of Greek mythology, from Ancient Greek Ἀλθαία (Althaía).


comedian

comedians (plural)
comedienne (feminine)

→ German: Comedian

→ Indonesian: komedian

From comedy + -ian. From Middle French comédien, from comédie (“comedy”).

(by extension) Any person who is humorous or amusing, either characteristically or on a particular occasion.


Death

Death can be seen on a tarot card.

7 And when hee had opened the fourth seale, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see.
8 And I looked, and behold, a pale horse, & his name that sate on him was Death, and hell followed with him: and power was giuen vnto them, ouer the fourth part of the earth to kill with sword, & with hunger, and with death, and with the beastes of the earth.

1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Revelation 6:7–8:

Oh cold, cold, rigid, dreadful Death, set up thine altar here, and dress it with such terrors as thou hast at thy command: for this is thy dominion!

1843 December 19, Charles Dickens, “Stave Four. The Last of the Spirits.”, in A Christmas Carol. In Prose. Being a Ghost Story of Christmas, London: Chapman & Hall, […], →OCLC, page 137:

He had drunk more than was fit for him, and he was singing some light song, when he saw approaching, as he said, the pale horse mentioned in the Revelation, with Death seated as the rider.

1902, John Buchan, The Outgoing of the Tide:

The personification of death, often a skeleton with a scythe, and one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse.


circus

en-noun

circus (plural circuses or (rare) circusses or (rare) circi)

circuses (plural)
circusses (plural rare)
circi (plural rare)

Borrowed from Latin circus (“ring, circle”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker-, *ker- (“to turn, to bend”). Doublet of cirque. Displaced native Old English hringsetl (literally “ring seat”).

ncog

(historical) In the ancient Roman Empire, a building for chariot racing.

(military, World War II) A code name for bomber attacks with fighter escorts in the day time. The attacks were against short-range targets with the intention of occupying enemy fighters and keeping their fighter units in the area concerned.


Pop

“All the other stars would leave the theatre wearing fur coats, fancy hats, and imported French shoes,” said Pop Stern, a longtime stage-doorman.

1982, Jhan Robbins, Front Page Marriage, page 186:

[…] George Melford (Pop, stage doorman) […]

1999, Amy Dunkleberger, Patricia King Hanson, AFI Catalog of Motion Pictures Produced in the United States, page 216:

[…] Ralph Sanford (doorman); A.S. “Pop” Byron (stage doorman); Allen Fox (photographer); […]

2020, Edwin M. Bradley, Hollywood Musicals You Missed, page 65:

(colloquial, US, theater) Traditional nickname for a stage doorman.


Tom

→ Tokelauan: Toma

From Middle English Thomme. Hypocorism of Thomas.

Poor Tom's a-cold.

c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iv]:

"Good,—that's a whack. What's your name?"
"Becky Thatcher. What's yours? Oh, I know. It's Thomas Sawyer."
"That's the name they lick me by. I'm Tom when I'm good. You call me Tom, will you?"

1876, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], chapter VI, in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Hartford, Conn.: The American Publishing Company, →OCLC, page 70:

What I'm worrying about is what Tom says when he starts talking."
"Uncle Tom?"
"I wish there was something else you could call him except 'Uncle Tom'," said Aunt Dahlia a little testily. "Every time you do it, I expect to see him turn black and start playing the banjo."

1934, P. G. Wodehouse, Right Ho, Jeeves:

"We're not sure - we were expecting a girl for some reason. But we're thinking of something simple like Tom."
"Thomas?"
"No, just Tom."

2008, David Park, The Truth Commissioner, →ISBN, page 366:

A diminutive of the male given name Thomas, also used as a formal male given name.


satirical

en-adj

satirical (comparative more satirical, superlative most satirical)

more satirical (comparative)
most satirical (superlative)

/səˈtɪɹɪkəl/

Spitting Image was a famous satirical television program.

Given his remarks in The English People about the dangers of Standard English, and the fact that the satirical Newspeak of Nineteen Eighty-Four is an engineered language[…]

2000 October 15, John E. Joseph, Limiting the Arbitrary: Linguistic Naturalism and Its Opposites in Plato's Cratylus and Modern Theories of Language, →ISBN, page 155:

Of, pertaining to, or connected with satire.


jump the shark

en-verb

jump the shark (third-person singular simple present jumps the shark, present participle jumping the shark, simple past and past participle jumped the shark)

jumps the shark (present singular third-person)
jumping the shark (participle present)
jumped the shark (participle past)
jumped the shark (past)

From "Hollywood (Part 3)", a 1977 episode during the fifth season of the American television series Happy Days, in which the character Fonzie jumped over a shark on waterskis. The expression argues that it was at this point that the show bore no similarity to its original form.

2004, Ronn Owens, Voice of Reason: Why the Left and Right Are Wrong, John Wiley & Sons, published 2004, →ISBN, page 212:
From that point on, Dallas was never the same. It hit its peak. It lost credibility. It jumped the shark.

2010 September 16, Michael Hewitt, “The Watcher: Which new TV shows will take off?”, in Orange County Register:
Returning show everyone will say has jumped the shark: "House."


dutchman

From Dutchman. Attested mainly in the US from the late 19th century.

(theater) A cloth strip attached to a flat to conceal a joint.


unobtainium

en-noun

unobtainium (countable and uncountable, plural unobtainiums)

From unobtain(able) + -ium (suffix typical of names of atomic elements), modelled after uranium and titanium.

suffix

Coordinate term: adamantium

Thus the invention of high temperature fuels will enable us to consider cores which are radiation cooled; such cores would be surrounded by large tanks (cooled by water) which in turn would be penetrated by beam holes. The beam holes themselves would probably have to be made of "unobtanium". (This "unobtanium" is a word coined at Atomics International to describe the material needed to make reactor projects feasible.) In between the radiation cooled reactors and the water cooled reactors is a regime suitable for liquid metal (including boiling liquid) cooled reactors. Once again "unobtanium" is needed.

1962, Charles N. Kelber, “Research Reactors”, in Earl W. Phelan, editor, Current Trends in Nuclear Power: A Symposium Sponsored by the University of Arizona in Cooperation with Argonne National Laboratory: Tucson, Arizona, February 26 – March 12, 1962, Argonne, Ill.: Argonne National Laboratory, →OCLC, page 17, column 2:

In order to illustrate some of the features of data processing under ideal conditions, a set of simulated data was generated and is presented in the last four columns of Table II. The hypothetical material is called Unobtainium.

[1978 September, Lynn C. Rogers, Ahid D. Nashif, “Computerized Processing and Empirical Processing of Viscoelastic Material Property Data and Preliminary Constrained Layer Damping Treatment Design”, in The Shock and Vibration Bulletin (Bulletin; 48, part 2 (Isolation and Damping, Impact, Blast)), Washington, D.C.: The Shock and Vibration Information Center, Naval Research Laboratory, →OCLC, page 26, column 2:

The names of materials presently used in aerospace applications are familiar: magnesium, aluminum, titanium, and so on. Propulsion scientists call the ideal material for turbine engines "Unobtainium," because it does not exist.

As early as 1969, during the initial Phase A studies, Lockheed had taken the initiative in proposing a two-stage fully-reusable design with both stages built of aluminum and using silica tiles for thermal protection. [...] Though that company indeed was in the forefront in developing such tiles, they were items for laboratory research. A design that specified their use had no more intrinsic credibility than one that proposed to use the miracle metals Unobtanium and Wishalloy.

1999, T[homas] A. Heppenheimer, “A Shuttle to Fit the Budget”, in The Space Shuttle Decision: NASA’s Search for a Reusable Space Vehicle (The NASA History Series; NASA SP-4221), Washington, D.C.: Office of Policy and Plans, NASA History Office, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, →OCLC, page 331:

This is not a Tom Tomorrow Bike, made of NASA unobtainiums and employing warp drives that have yet to be invented. It could be built as soon as the production technology is put on the line and powered-up, because all the vehicle technology is proven, off-the-shelf stuff.

2002 February, Kevin Cameron, “Supercharged: It’s Good to B-King”, in Cycle World, volume 41, number 2, New York, N.Y.: Hachette Filipacchi Magazines, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 38, column 2:

A fictional material or component which, if it existed, would enable one to easily solve a hard problem.

難得素

fictional component or material which would enable one to easily solve a hard problem


pasquinade

en-noun

pasquinade (countable and uncountable, plural pasquinades)

From Middle French, from Italian pasquinata, from Pasquino, name given to a statue in Rome on which lampoons were posted.

I thought the whole tale would shortly be served up in racy pasquinade—but Catherine, who might have said anything, didn't say a word.

1925, F[rancis] Scott Fitzgerald, chapter IX, in The Great Gatsby, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, →OCLC, page 196:

A lampoon, originally as published in public; a satire or libel on someone.


jocular

en-adj

jocular (comparative more jocular, superlative most jocular)

more jocular (comparative)
most jocular (superlative)

/ˈd͡ʒɒkjʊlə/

/ˈd͡ʒɑkjəlɚ/

From Latin iocularis, from ioculus (“a little jest”), diminutive of iocus (“a jest”).

He was in a jocular mood all day.

All we had was a short and jocular conversation.

From the tone of the speaker, the last words might be understood to be jocular.

1865, Horatio Alger, “chapter IV”, in 'Paul Prescott's Charge:

Sometimes he would notice it, pat it, call it half-mocking, half-jocular names, and so make it caper with extraordinary delight.

1896, H. G. Wells, “chapter 15”, in The Island of Dr. Moreau:

Then papa began to get very tired of Jones, and fidgeted and finally said, with jocular irony, that Jones had better stay all night, they could give him a shake-down.

1910, Stephen Leacock, The Awful Fate of Melpomenus Jones:


induction

en-noun

induction (countable and uncountable, plural inductions)

Inherited from Middle English induction, from Old French induction, from Latin inductiō, from indūcō (“I lead”). By surface analysis, induct + -ion or induce + -tion.

(theater) Use of rumors to twist and complicate the plot of a play or to narrate in a way that does not have to state truth nor fact within the play.


breakaway

EFFECT […] This usually refers to special effects such as flash pots, torches, crashes, breakaways, etc.

1980, Robert Anderson, Theatre Talk, page 19:

(theater) An item of scenery designed to be broken or destroyed during the performance.


dramaturgy

dramaturgy (usually uncountable, plural dramaturgies)

/ˈdɹæməˌtɜː(ɹ)d͡ʒi/

(theater) The art of dramatic composition for the stage.


Britannia

Learned borrowing from Latin Britannia. Doublet of Britain and Brittany.

Rhondda Cynon Taf
Rhondda Cynon Taf#English

A suburb in Cymmer community, Rhondda Cynon Taf county borough, Wales (OS grid ref ST0390).


squib

Possibly imitative of a small explosion.

unk

Possibly

(film, theater) In special effects, a small explosive used to replicate a bullet hitting a surface or a gunshot wound on an actor.


God

→ Pohnpeian: Koht

Etymology tree
Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰew-
Proto-Indo-European *-tós
Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰutós
Proto-Germanic *gudą
Proto-West Germanic *god
Old English god
Middle English god
Middle English God
English God
Derived from Middle English God. See god.

etymon

God sent Jesus to earth to be the King of the Jews; that is, the one to tell them what they should do. […] I will tell you why God let Jesus die upon the cross.

1899, The Sunday School Journal, page 378:

The first deity of various theistic religions, and the only deity in the Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

(Trinitarian Christianity) God the Father as distinguished from Jesus Christ, God the Son.


God

God, is this because of the "I don't love you anymore" T-shirt I bought? It was a joke!

Admiral Anderson: God... feels like years since I just sat down.

2012, BioWare, Mass Effect 3 (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →OCLC, PC, scene: Citadel (Priority: Earth):

Short for oh God: expressing annoyance or frustration.


takeoff

en-noun

takeoff (countable and uncountable, plural takeoffs)

Weird Al's song "Lasagna" is a takeoff on the popular song "La Bamba".

I came across a little pamphlet of the period, yellow and almost undecipherable, which, on examination, I found to be a rather amusing skit or satirical take-off on the profit system.

1897, Edward Bellamy, “ch. 23”, in Equality:

A parody or lampoon of someone or something.

I'll give you an estimate after I do the quantity takeoffs for the trusses and structural steel.

A quantification, especially of building materials.

(printing, UK, historical) The removal of sheets from the press.

Encyclopaedia of Sport
The take-off should be selected with great care, and a pit of large dimensions provided on the landing side.

The spot from which one takes off; specifically, the place from which a jumper rises in leaping.


humorously

en-adv

humorously (comparative more humorously, superlative most humorously)

more humorously (comparative)
most humorously (superlative)

He always managed to make people laugh at the tea table - he could pull faces so humorously.


revolve

From Middle English revolven (“to change direction”), borrowed from Old French revolver (“to reflect upon”), from Latin revolvere, present active infinitive of revolvō (“turn over, roll back, reflect upon”), from re- (“back”) + volvō (“roll”); see voluble, volve.

inh

(theater) The rotation of part of the scenery within a theatrical production.

[…] a revolving stage, two-level platforms stage left and stage right, and a large bridge that connected the platforms midstage, twelve feet up off the revolve.

2003, Gary Philip Cohen, The Community Theater Handbook, page 134:


continuity

en-noun

continuity (countable and uncountable, plural continuities)

Borrowed from Middle French continuité, from Latin continuitas, equivalent to continue + -ity.

In “Treehouse Of Horror” episodes, the rules aren’t just different—they don’t even exist. If writers want Homer to kill Flanders or for a segment to end with a marriage between a woman and a giant ape, they can do so without worrying about continuity or consistency or fans griping that the gang is behaving out of character.

2012 April 29, Nathan Rabin, “TV: Review: THE SIMPSONS (CLASSIC): “Treehouse of Horror III” (season 4, episode 5; originally aired 10/29/1992)”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name):

(narratology) A narrative device in episodic fiction where previous and/or future events in a series of stories are accounted for in present stories.


blockhead

Waldo was sent that from an elderly blockhead named Fuzzy in Gibtown, Florida. That's the town to which most freaks retire.

2005, Brian M. Wiprud, Stuffed, →ISBN, page 262:

He is a classic sideshow performer, entertaining crowds with feats such as sword swallowing, fire-eating, and chainsaw juggling. His specialty, however, is the human blockhead act, hammering six-inch nails up his nostrils.

2014, Louis J. Parascandola, John Parascandola -, A Coney Island Reader: Through Dizzy Gates of Illusion, →ISBN, page 306:

Burkhardt was a legendary figure in the sideshow world, a mentor and instructor to a new generation of blockheads and other working acts who now train in private classes at Coney Island USA's Sideshow School with Burkhardt's disciple Todd Robbins (Zigun 2006).

2016, M. Chemers, Staging Stigma: A Critical Examination of the American Freak Show, →ISBN:

A sideshow performer who hammers nails or similar items through his or her nostril into the nasal cavity; a human blockhead.


anticlimax

anticlimax (countable and uncountable, plural anticlimaxes)

A failed or reverse climax, particularly:

(narratology) An unsatisfying resolution to a narrative, usually owing to a deus ex machina or similarly trivial resolution of the main conflict.


hey presto

(British) Used by stage magicians, when performing a magic trick.


satirically

en-adv

satirically (comparative more satirically, superlative most satirically)

more satirically (comparative)
most satirically (superlative)

From satiric + -ally or satirical + -ly.


satiric

en-adj

satiric (comparative more satiric, superlative most satiric)

more satiric (comparative)
most satiric (superlative)

From Middle French satirique, from Late Latin satiricus.


double talk

From double + talk. Compare Middle English twispeche, Old English twīspǣċ, twīsprǣċ.

[Sid] Caesar's vaudeville format included burlesques—in the nineteenth-century meaning of parody—featuring silent-film and film noir send-ups; Italian opera produced in Caesar's ad-libbed, faux-Italian double-talk;[…]

2014, Rick DesRochers, The Comic Offense from Vaudeville to Contemporary Comedy, Bloomsbury, →ISBN, page 15:

(comedy) Speech which combines English (or some other language) and native-sounding gibberish for humorous effect.


sarcastically

en-adv

sarcastically (comparative more sarcastically, superlative most sarcastically)

more sarcastically (comparative)
most sarcastically (superlative)

`Sprung!' cried Jeff Basin, the local dubbo. 'Oh, der,' moaned Boardie sarcastically.

1979, Gabrielle Carey, Kathy Lette, Puberty Blues, page 46:


blender

→ Turkish: blender

A blender is added to a wig in the same way that a quick front is added. It can be added at the same time as the fronting lace is added or after the wig is completed.

2013, Martha Ruskai, Allison Lowery, Wig Making and Styling: A Complete Guide for Theatre & Film, page 80:

(theater) A piece of fabric sewn into the front of a theatrical wig to make it blend in with the performer's natural hair.


auguste

From French auguste, from German (dumme) August.

It had been used for clownish mock-disappearences, one auguste looking for another through endlessly circling blackness, an apparatus not now much in use.

1971, Anthony Burgess, M/F, Penguin, published 2004, page 93:

(theater) A kind of clown, usually serving as an anarchic foil to the whiteface.


one-liner

(computing) A command or small program consisting of a single line of input.


second banana

He grew disenchanted with playing second banana and never getting credit for the laughter.

(idiomatic) A comedian who plays a secondary or supporting role, especially as straight man and traditionally in vaudeville or burlesque theatre.


all your base are belong to us

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-all your base are belong to us.wav

Mistranslation of Japanese 君達の基地は、全てCATSがいただいた (literally “we (CATS) have taken all of your bases”). This grammatically incorrect "Engrish" phrase originated in the English subtitles of the 1991 European Sega Mega Drive version of the 1989 Japanese arcade game Zero Wing and became a catchphrase/meme on the Internet in the early 2000s.

der

君達の基地は、全てCATSがいただいた

(Internet slang, humorous) Used to tout victory over an opponent, or simply as a humorous catchphrase.


ditty bag

Suggested to be a clipping of commodity bag, a British naval term.

(theater) A bag used to hold costume pieces that do not hang on hangers, such as socks or gloves.


barrel of monkeys

en-noun

barrel of monkeys (plural barrels of monkeys)

/ˌbæɹəl‿əv ˈmʌŋkiz/

Possibly influenced by barrel of fun or barrel of laughs.

He thinks he’s a barrel of monkeys, but he’s not particularly entertaining.

(idiomatic, informal) Someone or something very amusing or funny, fun, mischievous, etc.

naurattaja

someone or something very amusing or funny, fun, mischievous, etc.


trapdoor

(theater) Such a trap set into the floor of a stage to allow fast exits and entrances.


repetiteur

(music, theater) A tutor or coach of ballet dancers or opera singers.


monologue

dialogue

antonym(s) of “a monopolizing utterance”

First attested in c. 1550. Borrowed from Middle French monologue, modeled on dialogue, ultimately from Byzantine Greek μονόλογος (monólogos, “soliloquy, monologue”).

der

(drama, authorship) A long speech by one person in a play; sometimes a soliloquy; other times spoken to other characters.

(comedy) A long series of comic stories and jokes as an entertainment.

monologi

comedy: long series of stories and jokes


comedic

en-adj

comedic (comparative more comedic, superlative most comedic)

more comedic (comparative)
most comedic (superlative)

It was done for comedic purposes


circus ring

A circular arena in a circus, where the acts are performed.

sirkusareena

arena in a circus where acts are performed


elemental

Those who have escaped the dark and terrible aspects of life will find my brutality, my flash of rage in our final tragedy, easy enough to blame; for they know what is wrong as well as any, but not what is possible to tortured men. But those who have been under the shadow, who have gone down at last to elemental things, will have a wider charity.

1898, H.G. Wells, The War of the Worlds, London: William Heinemann, page 219:

The pervasive emptiness and stultifying summer heat were only minor deterrents when compared with the more elemental consideration that all the banking and commercial institutions were based elsewhere, chiefly in Philadelphia and New York.

2000, Joseph J. Ellis, Founding Brothers, New York: Vintage Books, pages 79–80:


skit

Origin uncertain. Perhaps from Old Norse skjúta (“to shoot, dart, move quickly”), variant of skjóta. Compare flytja (“to move”). Alternately, perhaps a back-formation from skittish, which in turn may derive from Old Norse or another North Germanic language.


break a leg

Unknown; many unproven and widely debated theories exist. One of the most plausible is that it comes from Yiddish הצלחה און ברכה (hatslokhe un brokhe, “success and blessing”) through the heavy Ashkenazi Jewish influence in the American theater, via the misinterpretation in German as Hals- und Beinbruch (“neck and leg fracture”). The Yiddish phrase itself comes from Hebrew הַצְלָחָה וּבְרָכָה (hatzlakhá u-v'rakhá, “success and blessing”). Another possible origin was to wish opposite luck on the performer so as not to jinx the statement.

הצלחה און ברכה

הַצְלָחָה וּבְרָכָה

Go out there and break a leg tonight. Put on a great show!

I told my friend to break a leg, before she went on stage.

(idiomatic) Said to someone wishing they perform well in a theatrical production or comparable endeavor.

molta merda!

expression of best wishes to a performer


strongman

Giovanni Battista Belzoni, the famous Egyptian archeologist, who was a man of gigantic stature, began his public career as a strongman at the Bartholomew Fair, under the management of Gyngell, the conjuror, who dubbed him The Young Hercules.

1920, Harry Houdini, chapter 11, in Miracle Mongers and Their Methods:

Someone who performs feats of strength, sometimes in competitions or in a circus.


contortion

en-noun

contortion (countable and uncountable, plural contortions)

The act of contorting, twisting or deforming something, especially oneself.

A form of acrobatic display which involves the dramatic bending and flexing of the human body.

柔身術

a form of acrobatic display which involves the dramatic bending and flexing of the human body


Davy Jones's locker

There has been much speculation about the origin of this term, but none has been substantiated. See more at Davy Jones' Locker on Wikipedia.

"Damn my eyes," says he, "they are gone to Davy Jones's locker."
NOTE: Partridge erroneously refers to this as from the journal of Richard rather than Nicholas Cresswell.

1774, Nicholas Cresswell, The Journal of Nicholas Cresswell, 1774-7:

... are discovered singing a melancholy duet, bewailing the loss of an honest tar, whom they suppose (to use the burthen of the song) "is in Davy Jones's locker."

1781 August, Isaac Kimber, Edward Kimber, “The Summer Theatre”, in The London Magazine, or, Gentleman's Monthly Intelligencer, volume 50, page 360:

(nautical, idiomatic) The bottom of the ocean, seen as a grave for sailors and the resting-place of anything that goes overboard and is lost.

Davy Jones' Locker#History
en:Davy Jones's Locker

Davy Jones' locker at the Google Books Ngram Viewer


burlesque

burlesque (countable and uncountable, plural burlesques)

Borrowed from French burlesque, from Italian burlesco (“parodic”).

Burlesque is therefore of two kinds; the first represents mean persons in the accoutrements of heroes, the other describes great persons acting and speaking like the basest among the people.

1711 December 26 (Gregorian calendar), [Joseph Addison; Richard Steele et al.], “SATURDAY, December 15, 1711”, in The Spectator, number 249; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New Edition, […], volume III, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton & Company, 1853, →OCLC:

The dull burlesque appeared with impudence, / And pleased by novelty in spite of sense.

“H'm !” he said, “so, so—it is a tragedy in a prologue and three acts. I am going down this afternoon to see the curtain fall for the third time on what […] will prove a good burlesque ; but it all began dramatically enough. It was last Saturday […] that two boys, playing in the little spinney just outside Wembley Park Station, came across three large parcels done up in American cloth. […]”

1904–1905, Baroness Orczy [i.e., Emma Orczy], “The Lisson Grove Mystery”, in The Case of Miss Elliott, London: T[homas] Fisher Unwin, published 1905, →OCLC; republished as popular edition, London: Greening & Co., 1909, OCLC 11192831, quoted in The Case of Miss Elliott (ebook no. 2000141h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg of Australia, February 2020:

A derisive art form that mocks by imitation; a parody.

A variety adult entertainment show, usually including titillation such as striptease, most common from the 1880s to the 1930s.


Azrael

From Latin Azrahel, from Ancient Greek Ἀζαραήλ (Azaraḗl), from Biblical Hebrew עֲזַרְאֵל (ʿăzarʾēl), possibly via Aramaic (compare Classical Syriac ܥܲܙܪܵܐܹܝܠ (ʿazrāʾēl)).

The angel of death in Catholic and Orthodox Christianity, and in Islam.


angel of death

مَلَك الْمَوْت

personification of death in fiction and in art

死神 (しにがみ, shinigami, literally “death kami, death spirit”)

A personification of death in fiction, art, mythology, or religion.

An angel which attends to death, collecting souls at death, ending life at the appointed time of death.

An angel in Abrahamic scripture or eschatology that attends to death.

Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse
Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

Death, one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

(translations, of Japanese) A shinigami.


mezzanine

PIE word
 *médʰyos
The noun is borrowed from French mezzanine, and from its etymon Italian mezzanino, from mezzano (“(adjective) middle; (noun) go-between”) + -ino (diminutive suffix). Mezzano is derived from Latin mediānus (“central, middle”, adjective), from medius (“mid, middle”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *médʰyos (“middle”)) + -ānus (suffix meaning ‘of or pertaining to’).
The adjective and verb are derived from the noun.

der

(theater, obsolete) A floor under the stage, from which contrivances such as traps are worked.


jocund

en-adj

jocund (comparative more jocund, superlative most jocund)

more jocund (comparative)
most jocund (superlative)

/ˈd͡ʒəʊkənd/

From Old French jocond, from Latin iūcundus (“pleasant, agreeable”).

Nights candles are burnt out, and iocond Day / Stands tiptoes on the myſtie mountaine tops.

c. 1591–1595 (date written), [William Shakespeare], […] Romeo and Juliet. […] (First Quarto), London: […] Iohn Danter, published 1597, →OCLC, [Act III, scene v]:

Thou mak'ſt me merry: I am full of pleaſure, / Let vs be iocond. Will you troule the Catch / You taught me but whileare?

1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii], page 12, column 2:

There was once a widdow faire, young, free, rich, and withall very pleaſant and iocund, that fell in loue with a certaine round and well-ſet ſeruant of a Colledge: […]

1612, [Miguel de Cervantes], Thomas Shelton, transl., “Which Treates of the Strange Aduentures that Hapned to the Knight of the Mancha, in Sierra Morena: And of the Penance He Did there, in Imitation of Belti Nebros”, in The History of the Valorous and Wittie Knight-errant Don-Quixote of the Mancha. […], London: […] William Stansby, for Ed[ward] Blount and W. Barret, →OCLC, part 3, page 243:

First in his train is jocund Health,
Content, who o'er her distaff sings,
And from the plough that honest Wealth
Which scorns the tear-bought robe of kings.—

1827, Lydia Sigourney, Poems, Toil, page 107:

I was feeling blithe, almost jocund.

1876 June, Mark Twain, “The Facts Concerning the Recent Carnival of Crime in Connecticut”, in The Atlantic:

Jovial; exuberant; lighthearted; merry and in high spirits; exhibiting happiness.

весел

jovial, exuberant, lighthearted; merry and in high spirits


agon

en-noun

agon (countable and uncountable, plural agons or agones)

From Latin agōn, from Ancient Greek ἀγών (agṓn, “contest”).

(uncountable) A two-player board game played on a hexagonally-tiled board, popular in Victorian times.


narratology

narratology (countable and uncountable, plural narratologies)


docudrama

/ˈdɒkjʊˌdɹɑːmə/

Coordinate term: docufiction

In other words, docudrama covers an amazing variety of dramatic forms, bound together by two things. They are all based on or inspired by reality, by the lives of real people, or by events that have happened in the recent or not too distant past. Furthermore, they would seem to have a higher responsibility to accuracy and to truth than does fiction.

1999, Alan Rosenthal, editor, Why Docudrama?: Fact-fiction on Film and TV, SIU Press, →ISBN, page xv:

And docudramas would be the perfect epitaph because, though Norman Kingsley Mailer dreamed of being the monarch of the American novel, he was finally the king of faction, the man whose greatest books, a nightmare for any librarian hoping neatly to classify as fiction or non-fiction, consolidated the now standard view that reporting is as important to storytelling as invention.

2007 November 12, Mark Lawson, “The king of faction”, in The Guardian:

“Docudrama” is by its nature a confusing genre—neither fish nor fowl, and thus lacking either taste or substance.

2008 December 30, Bob Sommer, “The Education of David Frost”, in CounterPunch:

Fenny Compton featured in the recent TV docudrama Mr Bates vs The Post Office. It was where the first meeting of postmasters took place in 2009, organised by sub-postmaster Alan Bates to begin mounting a fight for justice in the now well-publicised Post Office scandal.

2024 April 3, Stephen Roberts, “Bradshaw's Britain: destination Harrow”, in RAIL, number 1006, page 57:

A type of drama (a film, a television show, or a play) that combines elements of documentary and drama, to some extent showing real events and to some extent using actors performing recreations of documented events.

dokudraama

drama that combines elements of documentary and drama


running joke

“I Love Lisa” opens with one of my favorite underappreciated running jokes from The Simpsons: the passive-aggressive, quietly contentious relationship of radio jocks Bill and Marty, whose mindless happy talk regularly gives way to charged exchanges that betray the simmering resentment and disappointment perpetually lingering just under the surface of their relationship.

2012 August 5, Nathan Rabin, “TV: Review: THE SIMPSONS (CLASSIC): “I Love Lisa” (season 4, episode 15; originally aired 02/11/1993)”, in The A.V. Club:

These deadpan repeated phrases that cannot quite decide whether they are part of a running joke or a half-abandoned philosophical dictum produce, as Michael Wood has argued, a comedy of the intellect that becomes a comedy of ignorance: […]

2012, Laura Salisbury, Samuel Beckett, Edinburgh University Press, →ISBN, page 37:

Her obvious favoritism has become a running joke among the staff. A joke that I'm the butt of. She's at least twenty years older than me, not to mention married.

2013, Colleen Hoover, This Girl, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN:

An ongoing joke, one that is regularly repeated or continued.


dramedy

dramedy (countable and uncountable, plural dramedies)

(uncountable) A genre of film or television that lies somewhere between drama and comedy.

”Fleabag,” Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s critically acclaimed British dramedy, featured a young woman whose strongest character trait — being horny — was decidedly not male.

2019 December 13, Tracie Egan Morrissey, “The Year Women Got ‘Horny’”, in New York Times:

(countable) A film or television programme belonging to this genre.


juvenile

Borrowed from Latin iuvenīlis (“youthful; juvenile”), from iuvenis (“young; a youth”) + -īlis (suffix forming adjectives indicating a relationship or a pertaining to). Iuvenis is ultimately derived from Proto-Indo-European *h₂yuh₁en- (“young”), from *h₂óyu (“long life; lifetime”) (from *h₂ey- (“age; life”)) + *h₁én (“in”).

'Home,' as, following his habit of giving monosyllable titles to his pieces, T[homas] W[illiam] Robertson christened his version of 'L'Aventurière,' has been revived. […] In a juvenile part, Mr. Lytton Sothern made a successful début.

1875 February 6, “Drama. [Haymarket.]”, in The Athenæum: Journal of English and Foreign Literature, Science, the Fine Arts, Music and the Drama, number 2467, London: Printed by E[dward] J. Francis & Co., […] published […] by John Francis. …, →OCLC, page 201, column 3:

(theater) An actor playing a child's role.


minstrel show

After the barbecue Roosevelt was to attend a minstrel show staged by the polio patients at the Playhouse. Hazel Stephens, a physical therapist and the recreational director, coordinated the production. Betty Brown, also a therapist who helped with the patients, assisted her. The curtain was set to go up at 5:30 P.M.[…]
Graham Jackson, a black recruiting officer in the Coast Guard at Macon, Georgia, was Roosevelt's favorite musician. He had performed for him on numerous occasions and was scheduled to do so again at the minstrel show. He was equally talented playing the accordion or the piano. A moving photograph of a tearful Jackson with his accordion at the Warm Springs ceremonies was circulated worldwide.

1991 Spring, William Warren Rogers, Jr., “The Death of a President, April 12, 1945: An Account from Warm Springs”, in The Georgia Historical Quarterly, volume LXXV, number 1, →ISSN, →JSTOR, →OCLC, pages 110, 114:

(theater) A variety show performed by minstrels, primarily white people in blackface.

minstrel show

A variety show performed by white people in blackface


mise en scène

mise en scène (plural mises en scène or mise en scènes)

mises en scène (plural)
mise en scènes (plural)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-mise en scène.wav

Borrowed from French mise en scène (literally “placing on stage”).

bor+

Although this mise en scène may sound like a contrived “Twilight Zone” setup, it provides Mr. Powers with the perfect opportunity to show off his virtuosic skills as a writer[…]

1995 June 27, Michiko Kakutani, “Playing Pygmalion to a Hermeneutic Computer”, in New York Times:

For reasons explained in the previous volume, noticeably absent are mises en scène representing productions at the Théâtre-Italien.

1998: H. Robert Cohen, Original Staging Manuals for Ten Parisian Operatic Premières, 1824–1843, page xiii (Pendragon Press; →ISBN, 0945193610)

Dupont interrupts the continuity of the master narrative of lighthouse-keeping and marital and extramarital love with visually arresting mise-en-scènes and mise-en-shots.

2010, Paul Matthew St, E. A. Dupont and His Contribution to British Film, Pierre: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, page 173:

This is also the point at which mise en scène no longer simply describes the passage of a text to the stage, but rather encompasses the autonomous organisation of the theatre work, the 'synthetic' vision of theatre and of mise en scène which is the subject of an accomplished study by Guido Hiss.

2013, Patrice Pavis, translated by Joel Anderson, Contemporary Mise en Scène, Taylor & Francis (Routledge), pages 9–10:

(film, theater) The arrangement of props and actors on a stage or for film.


situation comedy

en-noun

situation comedy (plural situation comedies)

situation comedies (plural)
as sitcom (abbreviation)

[…] in a time of peril and opportunity, the old complacent, unbalanced fare of action-adventure and situation comedies is simply not good enough.

1961 May 9, Newton N. Minow, Television and the Public Interest:

An episodic comedy radio or television program with a plot or storyline based around a particular humorous situation with the same set of characters.

情景喜劇

episodic comedy radio or television program — see also sitcom


harlequinade

A pantomime-like comedy featuring the harlequin or clown.


prolepsis

prolepsis (countable and uncountable, plural prolepses)

From Latin prolepsis, from Ancient Greek πρόληψις (prólēpsis, “preconception, anticipation”), from προλαμβάνω (prolambánō, “take beforehand, anticipate”).

der

[…] [Edmund] Plovvden being of the Romiſh perſvvaſion, ſome Setters trapanned him (pardon the prolepſis) to hear Maſſe: But aftervvards Plovvden underſtanding, that the pretender to Officiate vvas no Prieſt, but a meer Lay-man (on deſigne to make a diſcovering) Oh! The caſe is altered quoth Plovvden: No Priest, no Maſſe.

a. 1662 (date written), Thomas Fuller, “Shrop-shire”, in The History of the Worthies of England, London: […] J[ohn] G[rismond,] W[illiam] L[eybourne] and W[illiam] G[odbid], published 1662, →OCLC, page 3:

(narratology) The practice of placing information about the ending of a story near the beginning, as a literary device.


plot twist

It was daring of Lena Dunham, the show’s writer and creator, to introduce this particular plot twist. Assisted suicide is one of the subjects that American television shows steadily avoid.

2014 March 27, Robin Marantz Henig, “Fictional Plotlines and Real Assisted Suicide”, in The Atlantic:

A change in the direction or expected outcome of the plot of a film, novel, or other narrative work.


Mummerset

Blend of mummer (“actor in a pantomime”) + Somerset (“county in the west of England”).

Mummersetin murre

(often theater) An invented English-language dialect used by actors that mimics a stereotypical West Country rural accent.


jukebox

1939, juke (“roadside café”) + box, replacing older collocational terms such as nickel-in-a-slot phonograph, coin-in-the-slot phonograph, and coin-operated phonograph.

Jukeboxes have frequently been compared to the megamusicals and are considered a direct offshoot.

2022, Kevin Byrne, Emily Fuchs, The Jukebox Musical: An Interpretive History, Taylor & Francis, →ISBN:


Billy no mates

(British, slang) A person who has few or no friends.


comic relief

The sequence where Sam carves off Jorah’s infected tissue in secret, stopping every few moments to shush his patient, is presented as comic relief why? Jorah reels back into a diagonal close-up whimpering like a dog. Yellow pus oozes to get those good gross-out laughs. Is the substance of this operation funny to anyone on its face?

2017 July 23, Brandon Nowalk, “The great game begins with a bang on Game Of Thrones (newbies)”, in The Onion AV Club:

(narratology) The inclusion of a humorous character or scene or witty dialogue in an otherwise serious work, often to relieve tension.


number two

en-noun

number two (countable and uncountable, plural number twos)

number one

especially regarding the defecation sense

(theater) A somewhat small town, between a number one and a number three, where the success of a theatrical performance is unlikely to be very great.


jester

From Middle English gestour; equivalent to jest + -er.

A person in colourful garb and fool's cap who amused a medieval and early modern royal or noble court.


catastasis

catastasis (countable and uncountable, plural catastases)

From Ancient Greek κατάστασις (katástasis, “settling, appointment”).

uder

It doubles itself in the middle of his life, reflects itself in another, repeats itself, protasis, epitasis, catastasis, catastrophe.

The object of the meta-theatre is precisely that – to allow the participants to see through their first roles in it. But that is only the catastasis.

In classical drama, the second and penultimate section, in which action is heightened for the catastrophe.

(rhetoric) The part of a speech that states the subject to be discussed.


brail

From Middle English brayle, from Old French braiel, from Medieval Latin bracale (“girdle”) (from bracae (“breeches”)).

(theater) A rope or line used to suspend lights or scenery in a certain position.


lampoon

en-verb

lampoon (third-person singular simple present lampoons, present participle lampooning, simple past and past participle lampooned)

lampoons (present singular third-person)
lampooning (participle present)
lampooned (participle past)
lampooned (past)

Antonin Nompar de Caumont
Dictionnaire de la langue française
James II of England
Émile Littré

From French lampon (“satire, mockery, ridicule”), built on French lampons (“let us drink — a popular refrain for scurrilous songs”), from lamper (“to quaff, to swig”).
: Littré quotes a satirical song mocking King Jacques II Stuart, fleeing Dublin, in 1691, and returning to France under the escort of Lauzun:
:: Prenez soin de ma couronne, J'aurai soin de ma personne ;
("Take care of my crown, I will take care of my person")
Lampons ! lampons !

interwikt

lampon on the French Wiktionary.Wiktionary ᶠʳ


koken

Borrowed from Japanese 後見(こうけん) (kōken, “a staff in noh and kabuki”).

ja-r

McAllister uses the Japanese device of the koken for changing scenes, distributing props, and creating furniture.

1988 July 8, Diana Spinrad, “Tango; Chicago Young Playwrights Festival”, in Chicago Reader:

(theater) A black-clad person who enters the stage to rearrange the set, unremarked by the actors


humourous

en-adj

humourous (comparative more humourous, superlative most humourous)

more humourous (comparative)
most humourous (superlative)

[W]hatever Perſon vvould aſpire to be completely vvitty, ſmart, humourous, and polite, muſt by hard Labour be able to retain in his Memory every ſingle Sentence contained in this VVork, […]

1731 (date written), Simon Wagstaff [pseudonym; Jonathan Swift], “An Introduction to the Following Treatise”, in A Complete Collection of Genteel and Ingenious Conversation, […], London: […] B[enjamin] Motte […], published 1738, →OCLC, page xiv:

(chiefly UK, uncommon, proscribed) Alternative spelling of humorous


epitasis

en-noun

epitasis (countable and uncountable, plural epitases)

From Ancient Greek ἐπίτασις (epítasis, “stretching”), from ἐπιτείνω (epiteínō, “to stretch”), from ἐπί (epí) + τείνω (teínō, “stretch”).

der

How my uncle Toby and Corporal Trim managed this matter,—with the history of their campaigns, which were no way barren of events,—may make no uninteresting under-plot in the epitasis and working up of this drama.

1760, Laurence Sterne, The Life & Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, Penguin, published 2003, page 88:

(ancient drama) The second part of a play, in which the action begins.


tightrope

A tightly stretched rope or cable on which acrobats perform high above the ground.


send-up

1998, Wing Chun, "The Reluctant Hero," televisionwithoutpity.com, 24 Nov,
The clever send-up of the horror genre shows a profound understanding of the traditional Hollywood machinations.

The tired storyline, centered on a lesbian couple's search for a sperm donor, is irritatingly spoofish and lacks the subtlety that makes for great send-ups.

2006, Darwin Porter, Danforth Prince, Blood Moon's Guide to Gay and Lesbian Film, page 115:

A satirical imitation of a work of art or a genre.


time bomb

Even so, they managed to morph the recent European parliamentary elections into a time bomb and plant it under their country’s own future.

2014 June 6, Françoise Fressoz, “France’s Ticking Time Bomb”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

Someone must explain to Sunak about the time bomb ticking beneath his £1,000 loafers.

2023 May 31, Nigel Harris, “Comment: GBR now! We have no Plan B”, in RAIL, number 984, page 3:

The pandemic preparation timebomb detonated to devastating effect; a number of other timebombs are on the shortest of fuses. The government has now reached a state of perfect vicious cycle, when the only thing worse than the things it does are all the things it didn’t get round to doing.

2023 June 30, Marina Hyde, “The tide is coming in fast on Rishi Sunak – and it’s full of sewage”, in The Guardian:

(figuratively) A situation that threatens to have disastrous consequences at some future time.


ritornello

en-noun

ritornello (plural ritornellos or ritornelli)

ritornellos (plural)
ritornelli (plural)

Italian ritornello, diminutive of ritorno (“return”), from ritornare (“to return”): compare French ritournelle.

(music) A recurring tutti passage in Baroque music for orchestra or chorus.


Davy Jones

Uncertain. See more at Davy Jones' Locker on Wikipedia.

The pirates made him walk the plank, sent him down to Davy Jones.

He got so frightened about his plaguy soul, that he shrinked and sheered away from whales, for fear of after-claps, in case he got stove and went to Davy Jones.

1851 November 14, Herman Melville, chapter 18, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC:


comedienne

Borrowed from French comédienne. Compare doyenne.


tragedian

From Middle English tragedyen, from Old French tragediane (French tragédien), equivalent to tragedy + -ian.

Euen thoſe you were wont to take such delight in the Tragedians of the City.

c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene ii], page 261:

And as for the separation scene from the child, while Becky was reciting it, Emmy retired altogether behind her pocket-handkerchief, so that the consummate little tragedian must have been charmed to see the effect which her performance produced on her audience.

1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter LXVI, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC:

An actor who specializes in tragic roles.


crosstalk

crosstalk (countable and uncountable, plural crosstalks)

From cross- + talk.
Usage in reference to the Chinese comedic performance is probably a loose calque from Chinese 相聲／相声 (xiàngsheng).

A traditional Chinese comedic performance in the form of a dialogue.


series original

series original (plural series originals)

(narratology) The first published narrative in a series of works; a narrative from which later narratives are written after. It serves as the chronological core of the series.


Joe Average

Write the instructions so that any Joe Average can understand them.

(idiomatic) A hypothetical average or generic individual; the common man (or person, by extension).


box office

box office (countable and uncountable, plural box offices)

1786, presumably from sales of boxes, box seats (“separated private seating”). Sense of “total sales” from 1904.
Folk etymology is that this derives from Elizabethan theatre, where theater admission was collected in a box attached to a long stick, passed around the audience. However, first attestation is over a century later (theaters were closed in 1642), making this highly unlikely.

(countable, film, theater) A place where tickets are sold in a theatre/theater or cinema.


John Q. Public

Even careful safety precautions in the factory do not make it a good place for John Q. Public to wander unattended.

(idiomatic) A generic individual; some hypothetical average or ordinary citizen.

Jan Novák

a generic individual; some hypothetical average or ordinary citizen


icebreaker

/ˈaɪsˌbɹeɪkəɹ/

From ice + breaker, in the figurative sense from the expression to break the ice.

At the moment the curtain went up there had to be a lively ensemble number of principals and chorus singing and dancing, the traditional “icebreaker” that also covered up the noise of late-arriving ticket holders getting to their seats.

(theater) A lively song and dance routine at the start of a musical.


threequel

When last seen, the “Poseidon” had been blown into small pieces. With any luck, this means Mr. Allen can’t possibly make a threequel.

1979 May 25, Janet Maslin, “Inside a Floating Hulk”, in The New York Times:

On the contrary, last summer saw two jocular parodies of 1970’s blaxploitation films: the minor hit Undercover Brother and Beyonce Knowles’s portrayal of Foxxy Cleopatra, a character in the Austin Powers “threequel.”

1999 June 30, Katherine Anne Ackley, Perspectives on Contemporary Issues, Readings Across the Disciplines, Harcourt, fourth edition, Thomson Wadsworth (2006), page 267

This may be the year of the threequel, but not all the franchises will be successful, predicts Mr. Gray.

2007 January 5, Stephen Humphries, “At theaters in 2007, the year of the 'threequel'”, in The Christian Science Monitor:

THE biggest threequels to date have included some great films.
The third part of the original Star Wars trilogy, Return of the Jedi (1983), then Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (2005) were huge hits.

2007 April 16, Brian Mciver, “Return of the Threequel”, in The Daily Record:

(narratology) The chronologically third part of any series of works, especially a movie trilogy.


repartee

repartee (countable and uncountable, plural repartees)

/ˌɹɛpɑɹˈteɪ/

/ˌɹɛpɑːˈtiː/

From French repartie, deverbal of repartir (“to retort”).

The humor of my proposition appealed more strongly to Miss Trevor than I had looked for, and from that time forward she became her old self again;[…]. Our table in the dining-room became again the abode of scintillating wit and caustic repartee, Farrar bracing up to his old standard, and the demand for seats in the vicinity rose to an animated competition.

1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter VIII, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:

Another millstone around the NDP’s neck was the relative lack of seasoned parliamentarians in the government front bench who were skilled enough at repartee to take on the Tory veterans across the floor.

1982 December 11, Frances Russell, “Economic performance buoys Pawley’s position”, in The Vancouver Sun (The Weekend Sun), Vancouver, BC, page A6:


exeunt

en-verb

exeunt (third-person singular simple present exit or exeunts, present participle exeunting, simple past and past participle exeunted)

exit (present singular third-person)
exeunts (present singular third-person)
exeunting (participle present)
exeunted (participle past)
exeunted (past)

Borrowed from Latin exeunt (“they leave”), the third-person plural present active indicative of exeō (“leave”).

Get thee to bed, and rest; for thou hast need. [Exeunt Lady Capulet and Nurse.]

c. 1591–1595 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iii]:

Enter two Devils.
 Wagner. How now sir, will you serve me now?
 Robin. Ay, good Wagner, take away the devils then.
 Wagner. Spirits, away! [Exeunt Devils.] Now, sirrah, follow me.

1589–1592 (date written), Ch[ristopher] Marl[owe], The Tragicall History of D. Faustus. […], London: […] V[alentine] S[immes] for Thomas Bushell, published 1604, →OCLC:

Jane, Ursa, carrying Thomas, and Moss Bud start to exeunt.

1921, Montrose Jonas Moses, A Treasury of Plays for Children, page 504:

On that dixit we exeunted.

1957, Henry Miller, Big Sur and the Oranges of Hieronymus Bosch, page 249:

That let the small problem of getting the van within proximity, running a few yards of cable, spiking the phone line, revving the engine and frying the phones, removing the cable, and exeunting, south

1997, Richard Marcinko with John Weisman, Task Force Blue, page 311:

The lasses picked up their skirts and exeunted.

2003, Neal Stephenson, Quicksilver, page 142:

(archaic, drama) They leave the stage (a stage direction to two or more actors, the plural counterpart of exit).

退场

"they leave", usually in the context of theatre