Thespian

• IPA^(key): /ˈθɛspi.ən/

  Rhymes: -ɛspiən

Thespian (plural Thespians)

1. A person from the ancient Greek city of Thespiae.
2. 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.

   • 1990, Pat Booth, Malibu, New York, N.Y.: Ballantine Books, page 156:

     Now, I don’t think you’ve met Melissa Wayne, a fellow Thespian.

   • 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.

Thespian (comparative more Thespian, superlative most Thespian)

1. 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.