Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈθɛspi.ən/
- Rhymes: -ɛspiən
Noun
Thespian (plural Thespians)
- A person from the ancient Greek city of Thespiae.
- Alternative letter-case form of thespian.
1903, Adrian H[offman] Joline, The Diversions of a Book-Lover, New York, N.Y., London: Harper & Brothers, page 170:In his way Carlyle was as much of a Thespian as Garrick or Kemble, Booth or Jeferson.
1995 April, George Saunders, “Bounty”, in Harper’s Magazine, volume 290, number 1739:The courtyard’s empty and the Clients are inside the castle making pigs of themselves while watching a troupe of Thespians bait an animatronic bear.
Adjective
Thespian (comparative more Thespian, superlative most Thespian)
- Alternative letter-case form of thespian.
1890 December 24, “Judy’s Diary”, in Judy: The London Serio-comic Journal, volume 46, London: [s.n.], →OCLC, page 306, column 2:Went to that magnificent Temple of Thalia, the New Olympic, and saw the bewitchingest Pauline, in the person of Winifred Emery, that ever I saw in the shammiest, stagiest, tawdriest, tinsellest, transparentest, most diaphanously theatrical comedy I ever saw in the absolute period of my Thespian existence.
1990, Pat Booth, Malibu, New York, N.Y.: Ballantine Books, →ISBN, page 113:He stopped, and smiled, his blond hair, male-model good looks, and his ponytail giving away his Thespian dreams.
2019 February 18, “Lee Radziwill, Former Princess and Sister of a First Lady, Is Dead at 85”, in The New York Times, section B, page 8:“A stunning clotheshorse upon whom no discernible Thespian demands were made,” wrote Jack Gould, the television critic for The New York Times.