playactor

See also: play-actor

English

Noun

playactor (plural playactors)

1. Alternative form of play-actor.
   • 1876, Charles John Plumptre, King's college lectures on elocution, page 19:

     It is the oldest of saws that every great orator, whether secular or ecclesiastical, has in him many of the attributes of a playactor, and no one can have listened to the most successful of American preachers — Mr. Henry Ward Beecher — whose name has been so long before the public in connection with a painful and humiliating investigation — without seeing how closely his performances on the platform of Plymouth Church draw their inspiration from the stage.

   • 1884, Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn:

     "It's the playactor!" cried he, slashing at my cudgel.

   • 1963, Sukumar Sen Halāyudhamiśra, Sekasubhodaya of Halāyudha Miśra: Translated Into English and Edited with Notes and Introduction, page xv:

     He is Gāṅgo the playactor ("nata"). The stories connected with him, his son Jaya, also a playactor ("Jayanata), and the latter's wife Vidyutprabhā are probably baseless pleasantry.

Anagrams

• placatory