on

Etymology tree
Proto-West Germanic *ana
Old English on
Middle English on
English on
From Middle English on, from Old English on, an (“on, upon, onto, in, into”), from Proto-West Germanic *ana, from Proto-Germanic *ana (“on, at”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂en-.
Cognate with North Frisian a (“on, in”), Saterland Frisian an (“on, at”), West Frisian oan (“on, at”), Dutch aan (“on, at, to”), Low German an (“on, at”), German an (“to, at, on”), Swedish å (“on, at, in”), Faroese á (“on, onto, in, at”), Icelandic á (“on, in”), Gothic 𐌰𐌽𐌰 (ana), Ancient Greek ἀνά (aná, “up, upon”), Albanian në (“in”); and from Old Norse upp á: Danish på, Swedish på, Norwegian på, see upon.

etymon

Southern US, Midland US, Philadelphia, Baltimore

(acting, drama, roleplaying games) Acting in character.


star

Sranan Tongo: stari
Aukan: sitali

→ Finnish: stara

→ French: star

→ German: Star

→ Italian: star

→ Swahili: staa

From Middle English sterre, from Old English steorra (“star”), from Proto-West Germanic *sterrō, variant of *sternō, from Proto-Germanic *sternô, *sternǭ (“star”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂stḗr (“star”). Doublet of aster, stella, étoile, and estoile.
Cognates
Cognate with Scots starn, ster, North Frisian steer, West Frisian stjer, Saterland Frisian Stiern, Dutch ster, Luxembourgish Stär, German Stern, Yiddish שטערן (shtern), Vilamovian śtaom, Swedish stjärna, Norwegian stjerne, Icelandic stjarna, Gothic 𐍃𐍄𐌰𐌹𐍂𐌽𐍉 (stairnō), Spanish estrella, Portuguese estrela, Italian stella, Romanian stea, Occitan estela, Venetan stéła, Sicilian stidda, Sardinian isteddu, Mirandese streilha, Walloon sitoele, Romansch staila, Megleno-Romanian steau̯ă, Istriot stila, Istro-Romanian ste, Latin stēlla, Greek αστέρι (astéri), Ancient Greek ἀστήρ (astḗr), Old Armenian աստղ (astł), Persian ستاره (setâre), Tajik ситора (sitora), Pashto ستوری (storay), Mazanderani اساره (ëssâre), Northern Kurdish stêr, Central Kurdish ئەستێرە (estêre), Zazaki astare, Ossetian стъалы (st’aly), Hindi तारा (tārā), Urdu تارا (tārā), Punjabi ਤਾਰਾ (tārā), Gujarati તારો (tāro), Sanskrit तारा (tārā).

аеҵǝа

a celestial body appearing as a point of light on the clear night sky, whose position is relatively fixed with respect to each other

Many Hollywood stars attended the launch party.


ad lib

Abbreviation of ad libitum, borrowed from New Latin ad libitum.

(acting) An instance of something improvised, especially a line.


vocal

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Mélange a trois-vocal.wav

Late Middle English vocal, borrowed from Latin vōcālis (“uttering a voice, sounding, speaking”), from vōx (“a voice, sound, tone”) + -ālis (“-al”, adjectival suffix). Doublet of vowel and vocalis. Compare Old French vocal.

af

(music) A part of a piece of music that is sung.

(acting) A musical performance involving singing.


business

en-noun

business (countable and uncountable, plural businesses)

Tok Pisin: bisnis

→ Albanian: biznes

→ Belarusian: бі́знэс (bíznes)

→ Bulgarian: би́знес (bíznes)

→ Czech: business, byznys

→ Dutch: business

→ Indonesian: bisnis, bisnes

→ Faroese: besnissaður

→ Finnish: bisnes, business

→ French: business

→ Haitian Creole: biznis

→ Italian: business

→ Japanese: ビジネス (bijinesu)

→ Jersey Dutch: bääznäs

→ Marshallese: peejnej

→ Moroccan Arabic: بزناس (biznās)

desc

→ Newar: बनय्ज्या (banêjyā), बनेज्या (banejyā)

→ Pennsylvania German: Bisniss

→ Polish: biznes

→ Romanian: bișniță

desctree

→ Russian: би́знес (bíznes), би́знесъ (bíznɛs) — Pre-reform orthography (1918)
→ Armenian: բիզնես (biznes)
→ Yakut: биисинэс (biisines)

→ Slovak: biznis

→ Spanish: bisnes

→ Tatar: business

→ Ukrainian: бі́знес (bíznes)

→ Welsh: busnes

From Middle English busines, busynes, businesse, bisynes, from Old English bisiġnes (“business, busyness”), equivalent to busy + -ness. Doublet of busyness.

business

action carried out with a prop or piece of clothing

business in the front, party in the back

The business with the hat is a fine example of the difficulty of distinguishing between 'natural' and 'formal' acting.

1983, Peter Thomson, Shakespeare's Theatre, →ISBN, page 155:

(acting, theater) Ellipsis of stage business (“aspect of acting”)..


lead

en-noun

lead (countable and uncountable, plural leads)

From Middle English leden, from Old English lǣdan (“to lead”), from Proto-West Germanic *laidijan, from Proto-Germanic *laidijaną (“to cause one to go, lead”), causative of Proto-Germanic *līþaną (“to go”), from Proto-Indo-European *leyt- (“to leave, die”).
Cognate with West Frisian liede (“to lead”), Dutch leiden (“to lead”), German leiten (“to lead”), Danish and Norwegian Bokmål lede (“to lead”), Norwegian Nynorsk leia (“to lead”), Swedish leda (“to lead”). Related to Old English līþan (“to go, travel”).

der

"You make moving pictures. In jungles and places." "That's me. And I've picked you for the lead in my next picture."

1932, Delos W. Lovelace, King Kong, published 1965, page 43:

(acting, theater) The main role in a play or film; the lead role.

(acting) The actor who plays the main role; lead actor.


ham

Uncertain, though it is generally agreed upon that it first appeared in print around the 1880s. At least four theories persist:
* It came naturally from the word amateur. Deemed likely by Hendrickson (1997), but then the question would be why it took so long to pop up. He rejects the folk etymology of Cockney slang hamateur because it originated in American English.
* From the play Hamlet, where the title character was often played poorly and/or in an exaggerated manner. Also deemed likely by Hendrickson, though he raises the issue that the term would have likely been around earlier if this were case.
* From the minstrel's practice of using ham fat to remove heavy black makeup used during performances.
* Shortened from hamfatter (“inferior actor”), said to derive from the 1863 minstrel show song The Ham-fat Man. William and Mary Morris (1988) argue that it's not known whether the song inspired the term or the term inspired the song, but that they believe the latter is the case.

Writing in The New Yorker in 2005, James Wood praised Mr. McCarthy as “a colossally gifted writer” and “one of the great hams of American prose, who delights in producing a histrionic rhetoric that brilliantly ventriloquizes the King James Bible, Shakespearean and Jacobean tragedy, Melville, Conrad, and Faulkner.”

2023 June 13, Dwight Garner, quoting James Wood, “Cormac McCarthy, Novelist of a Darker America, Is Dead at 89”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

(acting) An overacting or amateurish performer; an actor with an especially showy or exaggerated style.


ham

en-verb

ham (third-person singular simple present hams, present participle hamming, simple past and past participle hammed)

hams (present singular third-person)
hamming (participle present)
hammed (participle past)
hammed (past)

(acting) To overact; to act with exaggerated emotions.


method

en-noun

method (countable and uncountable, plural methods)

From Middle French methode, from Latin methodus, from Ancient Greek μέθοδος (méthodos).

mètode

(programming) subroutine or function in object-oriented languages

my very easy method just speeds up naming planets

In this case, the application of the famous method was a little shaky. To be fair, the director was dealing with a pretty stroppy cast.

1989, Kenneth Branagh, Beginning, London: Chatto & Windus, →ISBN, page 64:

(acting, often "the method") A technique for acting based on the ideas articulated by Konstantin Stanislavski and focusing on authentically experiencing the inner life of the character being portrayed.


avail

avail (countable and uncountable, plural avails)

From Middle English availen (“to be of use”), from Old French a (“to”) + vail from valoir (“to be worth”), from Latin valere (“to be worthy, strong”).

(British, acting) Non-binding notice of availability for work.


extra

(acting) A supernumerary or walk-on in a film or play.


overplay

en-verb

overplay (third-person singular simple present overplays, present participle overplaying, simple past and past participle overplayed)

overplays (present singular third-person)
overplaying (participle present)
overplayed (participle past)
overplayed (past)

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

When Chris overacted his part again, the director warned that anyone overplaying would be barred from the next production.

Nevertheless, 3 Body Problem does well to pull us onward, as much through the relentless, but never overplayed, suffering and hardening of Ye Wenjie as she endures her effective imprisonment in the project grounds – and the stealing of her work by others – as by the present day mystery.

2024 March 21, Lucy Mangan, “3 Body Problem review – the creators of Game of Thrones have done it again”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

(transitive, intransitive, acting) To overdo or overact one's effect or role.


ham it up

ham it up (third-person singular simple present hams it up, present participle hamming it up, simple past and past participle hammed it up)

hams it up (present singular third-person)
hamming it up (participle present)
hammed it up (participle past)
hammed it up (past)

You can count on him to ham it up for the camera.

(idiomatic, acting) To deliberately exaggerate one's emotions or movements, or to overact or act hammily.

有意誇張 /有意夸张

performing arts: exaggerate one's emotions or movements


bit part

2005, Most of her work, however, consisted of bit parts. She often was cast in movies credited only as "flower vendor," "warden" or "suntan lady," — 'Five Easy Pieces' waitress dead at 85, CNN online.

(acting) A minor role, generally not assigned a name.


spit take

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

When the wombat-riding chimp jumped onto the bar, Smith, who had been enjoying a beer, did a massive spit take.

(acting) A take (recorded performance), generally expressing surprise or disbelief, in which the actor in the act of drinking spits out the drink.


improv

en-noun

improv (countable and uncountable, plural improvs)

(acting) A form of live entertainment characterized by improvisation and interaction with the audience.


typecast

en-verb

typecast (third-person singular simple present typecasts, present participle typecasting, simple past and past participle typecast or typecasted)

typecasts (present singular third-person)
typecasting (participle present)
typecast (participle past)
typecast (past)
typecasted (participle past)
typecasted (past)

(acting) To cast an actor in the same kind of role repeatedly.

encasellar

to cast an actor in the same kind of role repeatedly


out of character

I was out of character for most of the first act because those people in the third row wouldn't stop chatting.

(idiomatic, acting) Not in character; not in the zone; not successfully performing within the mindset of a given character in a theatrical performance.

After watching him perform so energetically, it is a bit of a trip to hang out with him when he's out of character. In real life, he's really mellow.

Susan asked the GM, out of character, whether she was able to sense magic in the room.

The comedian stepped out of character to mug directly to the audience.

(idiomatic, acting, roleplaying games) Not acting; not "on"; behaving within one's natural personality rather than that of a character, or taking actions entirely outside the fictional context.


costar

The once famous actor objected to his costar having a bigger dressing room.

(acting) a person who shares star billing

Alas, always a costar but never a star.

(acting) a person who slightly lacks the status to be considered a star


cold read

cold read (third-person singular simple present cold reads, present participle cold reading, simple past and past participle cold read)

cold reads (present singular third-person)
cold reading (participle present)
cold read (participle past)
cold read (past)

At the audition you will be required to cold read a script.

(intransitive, transitive, acting, newsreading, education) To perform (a script) without preparation.


center stage

(acting) The area in the center of the stage, especially one towards the front.


stage left

(acting) The area to the left of the stage when looking towards the audience.

näyttämövasen

area to the left (facing audience) of the stage


stage left

en-adv

stage left (comparative more stage left, superlative most stage left)

more stage left (comparative)
most stage left (superlative)


stage right

He enters stage right.

(acting) The area to the right of the stage when looking towards the audience.

näyttämöoikea

area to the right (facing audience) of the stage


stage right

stage right (comparative more stage right, superlative most stage right)

more stage right (comparative)
most stage right (superlative)


spear carrier

[A]ctors would get annual raises through 2008, when even the lowliest spear carrier will make more than $1,500 a week for being on Broadway.

2004 July 15, Jesse McKinley, “Close Call On Broadway Had Its Roots On the Road”, in New York Times, retrieved 2014-03-19:

(acting) A person in a play or movie with a minimal part; an extra.


overactor

/ˌoʊvɚˈæktɚ/

/ˌəʊvəɹˈæktə/


overact

en-verb

overact (third-person singular simple present overacts, present participle overacting, simple past and past participle overacted)

overacts (present singular third-person)
overacting (participle present)
overacted (participle past)
overacted (past)

/ˌəʊvəɹˈækt/

He overacted his part.

If governments overact and become oppressive, the terrorists will have won, for their theory is that repression will eventually lead to revolution.

1989, Susheela Bhan, Terrorism: an Annotated Bibliography, page 116:

The scenework proves unsuccessful when Carmichael recalls not the source of her misandry but another episode of overacting, that of castratively biting off the moustache of an amorous man.

2016, Leslie H. Abramson, Hitchcock & the Anxiety of Authorship:

(chiefly acting) To act in an exaggerated manner.


hamfat

(US slang, acting) A low-grade actor; a ham or hamfatter.


hambone

HAMBONE — An unconvincing blackface dialectician.

1946, Radio Alphabet: A Glossary of Radio Terms, Hastings House, page 38:

Ferrell is the ubiquitous hambone, an affably oblivious man-child prone to shirtless prancing onscreen.

2009 February 15, Rob Salem, “When comedy geniuses unite”, in Toronto Star:

(US slang, acting) A ham; an eager or inferior performer


hamfatter

US, a. 1880. Possibly from a minstrel show song called The Ham-Fat Man (1863).

(US slang, acting) A low-grade actor; a ham.


method acting

(acting) An acting technique in which the actor fully immerses themselves into the character they are playing.


tear a cat

tear a cat (third-person singular simple present tears a cat, present participle tearing a cat, simple past tore a cat, past participle torn a cat)

tears a cat (present singular third-person)
tearing a cat (participle present)
tore a cat (past)
torn a cat (participle past)

Yet my chief humour is for a tyrant. I could play / Ercles rarely, or a part to tear a cat in, to make all split.

c. 1595–1596, William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream, act 1, scene 2:

Sirha is this you would rend and teare the Cat / Upon a Stage, and now march like drown'd rat?

c. 1599, John Marston, Histriomastix, act 5, scene 1, page [53]:

Till, in his periwig combustion / Will. Shakespeare sounds like Irish fustian, / In which Macready tears a cat, / And Shiel, the patriot, writes so pat;

1835, George Daniel, “The Conversazione”, in The Modern Dunciad, William Pickering, page 224:

From this performance there is no doubt in anyone's mind that Hamlet is an amateur actor having a fling at histrionics, or as Guthrie might say, "tearing a cat."

1970, Alfred Rossi, Minneapolis Rehearsals: Tyrone Guthrie Directs Hamlet, University of California Press, →ISBN, page 21:

(obsolete, idiomatic, acting) To overact; to violently rant and rave on stage.


break character

break character (third-person singular simple present breaks character, present participle breaking character, simple past broke character, past participle broken character)

breaks character (present singular third-person)
breaking character (participle present)
broke character (past)
broken character (participle past)

Once Lynne and I realized that Jim was going to approach the role of Kaufman in a “method acting,” Kaufmanesque kind of way—i.e., he would become Andy or Tony Clifton for the entire shoot, never breaking character […]

2014, Bob Zmuda, Lynne Margulies, Andy Kaufman: The Truth, Finally, BenBella Books, →ISBN, page 43:

(intransitive, acting) To fail to act as a certain character; to be or act out of character.


tear-cat

Fie upon't, mere fustian; I had rather hear two good bawdy jests then a whole play of such tear-cat thunder-claps.

1606, John Day, The Isle of Gulls, in White, Thomas, editor, The Old English Drama, volume 4, published 1830, Induction, page 15:

I am cal'd by those that have seen my valour, Tear-Cat.

1611, Thomas Middleton, Thomas Dekker, The Roaring Girl, act 5, scene 1:


tear-mouth

You grow rich, do you, and purchase, you twopenny tear-mouth?

1601, Ben Jonson, Poetaster, act 3, scene 1:

How would you, or how do you think I should, relish being the object of such a letter as Kean wrote t'other day to a poor author, who, though a pedantic blockhead, had at least the right to be treated as a gentleman by a copper-laced two-penny tearmouth, rendered mad by conceit and success?

1819 April 7, Sir Walter Scott, [Letter to Robert Southey]:


makeup call

The director scheduled the makeup call for 30 minutes before the play started.

The model had to rush to get to her 8:30 makeup call.

(acting, modeling) A verbal or written request, or a scheduled time, for actors or models to be available for the application of cosmetics, hairstyling, etc. prior to a performance or photography session.


yes and

yes and (third-person singular simple present yes ands, present participle yes anding, simple past and past participle yes anded)

yes ands (present singular third-person)
yes anding (participle present)
yes anded (participle past)
yes anded (past)

From a well-known rule in improv acting, wherein improvised lines must (figuratively) be answered with yes and... in order to continue the scene.

If Lord Buckley made standup courageous, then Lenny Bruce “yes anded” that and ushered in standup for a new age

2011, Margaret Hicks, Chicago Comedy: A Fairly Serious History:

(acting) To go along with what is offered, especially in a performative context, and to accept and expand upon it; to go with the flow; to take it in stride.


space work

(acting) The skill of handling imaginary objects and locations as part of a performance, especially in improv acting.


run lines

run lines (third-person singular simple present runs lines, present participle running lines, simple past ran lines, past participle run lines)

runs lines (present singular third-person)
running lines (participle present)
ran lines (past)
run lines (participle past)

Reporters: When you're not on stage, get together and run lines. As Sheriff Hartman can tell you, ... That group got together regularly to run lines and had great success. ... Using the Grief Sheet to Improve Community Theatre.

2002, Kenneth Anderson, Good Grief! Using the Grief Sheet to Improve Community Theatre Production: Telling the Story Better Than It Has Ever Been Told, iUniverse, →ISBN, page 274:

In "Barrymore," Mr. Luce imagines that the actor, one month before his death, has taken over a Broadway theater for an evening to run lines from "Richard III," in anticipation of possibly recreating the role that provided him with his[…]

2014 October 13, C. S. Smith, The New York Times Theater Reviews 1997-1998, Routledge, →ISBN, page 51:

(acting) To practice or memorize one's lines from a script outside of rehearsal, usually with another person.