- audience
- late 14c., "the action of hearing," from O.Fr. audience, from L. audentia "a hearing, listening," from audientum (nom. audiens), prp. of audire "to hear," from PIE compound *au-dh- "to perceive physically, grasp," from base *au- "to perceive" (cf. Gk. aisthanesthai "to feel;" Skt. avih, Avestan avish "openly, evidently;" O.C.S. javiti "to reveal"). Meaning "formal hearing or reception" is from late 14c.; that of "persons within hearing range, assembly of listeners" is from early 15c. (Fr. audience retains only the older senses). Sense transferred 1855 to "readers of a book." Audience-participation (adj.) first recorded 1940.
- audio-
- from L. audire "hear," (see audience); first used in Eng. as a word-formation element 1913.
- audit (n.)
- early 15c., from L. auditus "a hearing," pp. of audire "hear" (see audience). Official examination of accounts, which originally was an oral procedure. The verb is attested from 1550s.
- auditory
- 1570s, from L. auditorius "pertaining to hearing," from auditor "hearer" (see audience).
- turnout
- "audience," 1816, from turn + out.
- upstage
- 1918 (adj.), 1921 (v.); the notion is of drawing attention to oneself (and away from a fellow actor) by moving upstage -- to the rear of the stage -- so that the other actor must face away from the audience. The noun upstage "back of the stage" is recorded from 1870.
- audio
- "sound, especially recorded or transmitted," 1934, abstracted from prefix audio- (in audio-frequency, 1919, etc.), from L. audire "hear" (see audience).
- auditorium
- 1727, from L. auditorium "lecture room," lit. "place where something is heard," neuter of auditorius (adj.) "of or for hearing," from auditus, pp. of audire "to hear" (see audience).
- audition
- 1590s, "power of hearing," from M.Fr. audicion, from O.Fr., "hearing (in a court of law)," from L. auditionem (nom. auditio), from auditus, pp. of audire "hear" (see audience). Meaning "trial for a performer" first recorded 1881; the verb in this sense is 1935, from the noun.
- Porte
- "Ottoman court at Constantinople," 1609, from Fr., la Sublime Porte, translation of Arabic bab-i-'aliy, lit. "lofty gate," official name of the central office of the Ottoman government (cf. Vatican for "the Papacy," Kremlin for "the U.S.S.R."). Supposedly a ref. to the ancient custom of holding royal audience in the doorway of a king's palace or tent.
- capacity
- 1480, from M.Fr. capacité, from L. capacitatem, from capax "able to hold much," from capere "to take" (see capable). Meaning "largest audience a place can hold" is 1908. Capacitate is recorded from 1657.
- anaesthesia
- 1721, "loss of feeling," Mod.L., from Gk. anaisthesia "lack of sensation," from an- "without" + aisthesis "feeling," from PIE base *au- "to perceive" (see audience).
- obey
- late 13c., from O.Fr. obeir, from L. oboedire "obey, pay attention to, give ear," lit. "listen to," from ob "to" + audire "listen, hear" (see audience). Same sense development is in cognate O.E. hiersumnian.
- chorus
- 1561, from Gk. khoros "band of dancers or singers, dance, dancing ground," from PIE *ghoro-. In Attic tragedy, the khoros gave expression, between the acts, to the moral and religious sentiments evoked by the actions of the play. Originally used in theatrical sense; meaning of "a choir" first attested 1656. Meaning "the refrain of a song" (which the audience joins in singing) is 1599. Chorus girl is 1894.
- audible
- 1520s, from M.Fr. audible, from L.L. audibilis, from L. audire "to hear," from PIE *awis-dh-yo-, from base *au- "to perceive" (see audience). Related: Audibly (1630s).
- oyez
- c.1425, from Anglo-Fr. oyez "hear ye!" (c.1286, O.Fr. oiez), a cry uttered (usually thrice) to call attention, from L. subjunctive audiatis, pl. imperative of audire "to hear" (Anglo-Fr. oier; see audience).
- psychiatry
- 1846, from Fr. psychiatrie, from M.L. psychiatria, lit. "a healing of the soul," from Gk. psykhe- "mind" (see psyche) + iatreia "healing, care." Psychiatrist first recorded 1890; the older name was mad-doctor (1703).
"A psychiatrist is a man who goes to the Folies Bergère and looks at the audience." [Anglican Bishop Mervyn Stockwood, 1961]
- auditor
- late 14c., "a listener," from Anglo-Fr. auditour (Fr. auditeur; O.Fr. oieor "listener," 13c.), from L. auditor "a hearer," from auditus, pp. of audire "to hear" (see audience). Meaning "receiver and examiner of accounts" (late 14c.) is because this process formerly was done, and vouched for, orally.
- oyer
- 1432, "a hearing of causes," from Anglo-Fr. oyer, from O.Fr. oir, from L. audire "to hear" (see audience). Especially in phrase oyer and terminer (1414), from Anglo-Fr. (1278), lit. "a hearing and determining," in England a court of judges of assize, in U.S. a higher criminal court.
- sockdolager
- 1830, "a decisive blow," fanciful formation from sock (v.) "hit hard;" also said to be a variant of doxology, on a notion of "finality." The meaning "something exceptional" is attested from 1838. Sockdologising was nearly the last word President Abraham Lincoln heard. During the performance of Tom Taylor's "Our American Cousin," assassin John Wilkes Booth (who knew the play well) waited for the line "Well, I guess I know enough to turn you inside out, you sockdologising old man-trap," and as the audience laughed, Booth fired the fatal shot.
- Uncle Tom
- "servile black man," 1922, somewhat inaccurately in ref. to the humble, pious, but strong-willed main character in Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel, "Uncle Tom's Cabin" (1852). The image implied in the insult perhaps is more traceable to the late 19c. minstel show versions of the story, which reached a far wider audience than the book.
"I don't recall anyone in the 1920s using the term 'Uncle Tom' as an epithet. But what's amazing is how fast it caught on (in the 1930s). Black scholars picked up (the term) and just started throwing it at each other." [Ernest Allen, quoted in Hamilton, Kendra, "The Strange Career of Uncle Tom," Black Issues in Higher Education, June 2002]
As a verb, attested from 1937. - speech
- O.E. spæc "act of speaking, manner of speaking, formal utterance," variant of spræc, related to sprecan, specan "to speak" (see speak), from P.Gmc. *sprækijo (cf. Ger. Sprache "speech"). The spr- forms were extinct in Eng. by 1200. Meaning "address delivered to an audience" first recorded 1580s. Speechify "talk in a pompous, pontifical way" first recorded 1723. Speechless "astonished" is attested from late 14c.
- niggard
- 1366, nygart, of uncertain origin. The suffix suggests Fr. origin (cf. dastard), but the root word is probably related to O.N. hnøggr "stingy," from P.Gmc. *khnauwjaz (cf. Swed. njugg "close, careful," Ger. genau "precise, exact"), and to O.E. hneaw "stingy, niggardly," which did not survive in M.E.
"It was while giving a speech in Washington, to a very international audience, about the British theft of the Elgin marbles from the Parthenon. I described the attitude of the current British authorities as 'niggardly.' Nobody said anything, but I privately resolved—having felt the word hanging in the air a bit—to say 'parsimonious' from then on." [Christopher Hitchens, "The Pernicious Effects of Banning Words," Slate.com, Dec. 4, 2006]
- lecture (n.)
- late 14c., "action of reading, that which is read," from M.L. lectura "a reading, lecture," from L. lectus, pp. of legere "to read," originally "to gather, collect, pick out, choose" (cf. election), from PIE *leg- "to pick together, gather, collect" (cf. Gk. legein "to say, tell, speak, declare," originally, in Homer, "to pick out, select, collect, enumerate;" lexis "speech, diction;" logos "word, speech, thought, account;" L. lignum "wood, firewood," lit. “that which is gathered”). To read is to "pick out words." Meaning "action of reading (a lesson) aloud" is from 1520s. That of "a discourse on a given subject before an audience for purposes of instruction" is from 1530s. The verb is attested from 1580s.
- comedy
- late 14c., from O.Fr. comedie, from L. comoedia, from Gk. komoidia "a comedy, amusing spectacle," from komodios "singer in the revels," from komos "revel, carousal" + oidos "singer, poet," from aeidein "to sing." The classical sense is similar to the modern one, but in the Middle Ages the word came to mean poems and stories generally (albeit ones with happy endings), and the earliest Eng. sense is "narrative poem" (cf. Dante's "Commedia"). Comedy aims at entertaining by the fidelity with which it presents life as we know it; farce at raising laughter by the outrageous absurdity of the situation or characters exhibited; extravaganza at diverting by its fantastic nature; burlesque at tickling the fancy of the audience by caricaturing plays or actors with whose style it is familiar. Generalized sense of "quality of being amusing" dates from 1877.
- house
- O.E. hus "dwelling, shelter, house," from P.Gmc. *khusan (cf. O.N., O.Fris. hus, Du. huis, Ger. Haus), of unknown origin, perhaps connected to the root of hide (v.). In Goth. only in gudhus "temple," lit. "god-house;" the usual word for "house" in Goth. being razn. Meaning "family, including ancestors and descendants, especially if noble" is from c.1000. The legislative sense (1540s) is transferred from the building in which the body meets. Meaning "audience in a theater" is from 1921; as a dance club DJ music style, probably from the Warehouse, a Chicago nightclub where the style is said to have originated. Zodiac sense is first attested late 14c. The verb meaning "give shelter to" is O.E. husian (cognate with Ger. hausen, Du. huizen). Household is first recorded late 14c.; for housewife (early 13c.) see hussy. To play house is from 1871; as suggestive of "have sex, shack up," 1968. House arrest first attested 1936; housewarming is from 1577; houseboat is 1790. On the house "free" is from 1889.
"And the Prophet Isaiah the sonne of Amos came to him, and saide vnto him, Thus saith the Lord, Set thine house in order: for thou shalt die, and not liue." [2 Kings xx.1, version of 1611]
- humor
- 1340, "fluid or juice of an animal or plant," from Anglo-Norm. humour, from O.Fr. humor, from L. umor "body fluid" (also humor, by false assoc. with humus "earth"), related to umere "be wet, moist," and to uvescere "become wet." In ancient and medieval physiology, "any of the four body fluids" (blood, phlegm, choler, and melancholy or black bile) whose relative proportions were thought to determine state of mind. This led to a sense of "mood, temporary state of mind" (first recorded 1525); the sense of "amusing quality, funniness" is first recorded 1682, probably via sense of "whim, caprice" (1565), which also produced the verb sense of "indulge," first attested 1588. "The pronunciation of the initial h is only of recent date, and is sometimes omitted ...." [OED] Humorous in the modern sense is first recorded 1705. For types of humor, see the useful table below, from H.W. Fowler ["Modern English Usage," 1926].
device HUMOR WIT SATIRE SARCASM INVECTIVE IRONY CYNICISM SARDONIC motive/aim discovery throwing light amendment inflicting pain discredit exclusiveness self-justification self-relief province human nature words & ideas morals & manners faults & foibles misconduct statement of facts morals adversity method/means observation surprise accentuation inversion direct statement mystification exposure of nakedness pessimism audience the sympathetic the intelligent the self-satisfied victim & bystander the public an inner circle the respectable the self