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The [[word]] hypocrisy comes from the [[Greek]] ὑπόκρισις (hypokrisis), which means "[[play]]-acting", "acting out", "coward" or "dissembling". The word ''hypocrite'' is from the [[Greek]] word ὑποκρίτης (hypokrites), the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agent_noun agentive noun] associated with υποκρίνομαι (hypokrinomai), i.e., "I [[play]] a part". Both derive from the verb κρίνω, "[[judge]]" (»κρίση, "[[judgement]]" »κριτική (kritiki), "critics") presumably because the [[performance]] of a dramatic [[text]] by an [[actor]] was to involve a [[degree]] of [[interpretation]], or assessment, of that text.

The [[word]] hypocrisy comes from the [[Greek]] ὑπόκρισις (hypokrisis), which means "[[play]]-acting", "acting out", "coward" or "dissembling". The word ''hypocrite'' is from the [[Greek]] word ὑποκρίτης (hypokrites), the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agent_noun agentive noun] associated with υποκρίνομαι (hypokrinomai), i.e., "I [[play]] a part". Both derive from the verb κρίνω, "[[judge]]" (»κρίση, "[[judgement]]" »κριτική (kritiki), "critics") presumably because the [[performance]] of a dramatic [[text]] by an [[actor]] was to involve a [[degree]] of [[interpretation]], or assessment, of that text.

 

Alternatively, the [[word]] is an amalgam of the Greek prefix hypo-, meaning "under", and the verb krinein, meaning "to sift or decide". Thus the original meaning implied a deficiency in the ability to sift or decide. This deficiency, as it pertains to one's own beliefs and feelings, informs the word's contemporary meaning.[3]

Alternatively, the [[word]] is an amalgam of the Greek prefix hypo-, meaning "under", and the verb krinein, meaning "to sift or decide". Thus the original meaning implied a deficiency in the ability to sift or decide. This deficiency, as it pertains to one's own beliefs and feelings, informs the word's contemporary meaning.[3]

Whereas hypokrisis applied to any sort of [[public]] [[performance]] (including the art of [[rhetoric]]), hypokrites was a technical term for a [[stage]] [[actor]] and was not considered an appropriate role for a [[public]] figure. In Athens in the 4th century BC, for example, the great orator [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demosthenes Demosthenes] ridiculed his rival [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aeschines Aeschines], who had been a successful actor before taking up [[politics]], as a hypokrites whose skill at impersonating characters on stage made him an untrustworthy politician. This [[negative]] view of the hypokrites, perhaps combined with the [[Roman]] disdain for [[actors]], later shaded into the originally neutral hypokrisis. It is this later sense of hypokrisis as "play-acting", i.e., the assumption of a counterfeit [[persona]], that gives the [[modern]] word hypocrisy its [[negative]] connotation.

Whereas hypokrisis applied to any sort of [[public]] [[performance]] (including the art of [[rhetoric]]), hypokrites was a technical term for a [[stage]] [[actor]] and was not considered an appropriate role for a [[public]] figure. In Athens in the 4th century BC, for example, the great orator [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demosthenes Demosthenes] ridiculed his rival [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aeschines Aeschines], who had been a successful actor before taking up [[politics]], as a hypokrites whose skill at impersonating characters on stage made him an untrustworthy politician. This [[negative]] view of the hypokrites, perhaps combined with the [[Roman]] disdain for [[actors]], later shaded into the originally neutral hypokrisis. It is this later sense of hypokrisis as "play-acting", i.e., the assumption of a counterfeit [[persona]], that gives the [[modern]] word hypocrisy its [[negative]] connotation.

*Date: [http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/13th_Century 13th century]

*Date: [http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/13th_Century 13th century]

==Definitions==

==Definitions==

* a feigning to be what one is not or to believe what one does not; especially : the false [[assumption]] of an [[appearance]] of [[virtue]] or [[religion]]

* a feigning to be what one is not or to believe what one does not; especially : the false [[assumption]] of an [[appearance]] of [[virtue]] or [[religion]]