Word of the Week (WOW): histrionic

This post is in response to Heena Rathore P.’s Word of the Week (WOW). This weekly meme is a great way of improving your vocabulary. If you wish to participate, simply create a post with your word and leave a link in a comment on Heena’s WOW post.

Here’s my WOW for this week:

Word
Histrionic

Part of Speech
Adjective

Noun – histrionics
Adverb – histrionically

Pronunciation
his-tri-on-ic (hĭs′trē-ŏn′ĭk)

Meaning

Adjective
1) Of or relating to actors or acting
2) Deliberately affected or self-consciously emotional; overly dramatic, in behavior or speech.

Noun
1) (plural) melodramatic displays of temperament
2) (Theatre) (plural, functioning as singular) dramatics

Synonyms

actorish, actorly, affected, dramatic, exaggerated, hammy, melodramatic, overacted, overdone, overplayed, stagey, studied, theatric, theatrical, thespian, unnatural

Antonyms

conservative, discreet, inconspicuous, modest, nondramatic, nontheatrical, plain, quiet, simple, unaffected, undramatic, underplayed, unpretentious, muted, restrained, subdued

Word Origin
1640-50 Late Latin histrōnicus of actors, equivalent to histriōn- (stem of histriō) meaning actor (said to be Etruscan) + -icus

Use in a Sentence
1) Joseph Barclay’s histrionic performance was the biggest disappointment of the night, his overdone portrayal of .
2) After the recent histrionics Jemima was happy to return to a calmer way of life.
3) With Mother screeching histrionically in the upstairs room, Abigail knew she could not stay even a minute longer.