histrionics, n.
Pronunciation: Brit. /ˌhɪstrɪˈɒnɪks/, U.S. /ˌhɪstriˈɑnɪks/
Etymology: < histrionic adj.: see -ic suffix 2. Compare post-classical Latin histrionica (feminine) art of acting (4th cent.).
1. Drama, theatre; acting. Also: pretence, play-acting. Now rare.
In quot. 1824: (perh.) (as count noun) a comic play, a farce.
1824 A. Vieusseux Italy & Italians in 19th Cent. (new ed.) II. v. 249 Several critics..think that the commedie dell' arte are the remains of the old Roman histrionics or farces.
1829 Gentleman's Mag. Nov. 399/1, I am not a reader of histrionics, only a spectator.
1882 A. W. Ward Dickens i. 11 He loved the theatre and everything which savoured of histrionics.
1890 Times 10 Mar. 9/1 As a matter of common decorum or of satisfactory histrionics.
1920 Cent. Mag. May 90 As vivid in its facts and its narration as the recital of a drama of ancient Athens by a master of histrionics.
2. Melodramatic or hysterical behaviour, typically intended to attract attention. Usu depreciative. Cf. amateur dramatics n 2.
1931 F. L. Allen Only Yesterday vi. 130 Charles G. Dawes..entranced the newspaper-reading public with his picturesque language, his underslung pipe, and his broom-waving histrionics.
1954 Life 19 July 22/1 The air of a Chicago courtroom was humid with tears last week in a double show of female histrionics at the inquest into the mysterious death..of mail order heir Montgomery Ward Thorne.
1998 BBC Match of Day Mag. Apr. 95/4 Should the people tasked with officiating the game turn a blind eye to the histrionics simply because a player happens to be foreign.
2005 C. Brookmyre All Fun & Games until Somebody loses Eye (2006) vi. 154 She'd just give him a few bullet points and get off before he could start the histrionics.
3. Technical virtuosity in a vocal or instrumental performance, esp. (in later use) characterized as showy, attention-seeking, or frenzied.
1940 Amer. Rec. Guide 7 221/2 Stevens is an intelligent singer as well as a musical one: she has a singularly appealing voice and the imagination for real vocal histrionics.
1979 D. Marsh & J. Swenson Rolling Stone Rec. Guide (1980) 440/2 The electricity of audience/performer interaction spurred [B. B.] King on to elaborate vocal and instrumental histrionics.
1996 Toronto Star (Nexis) 4 Jan. e9 While Gabrels is definitely a musician's musician, you'd never catch him indulging in guitar histrionics.
2009 B. Miles Brit. Invasion 32 He preferred that guitar sound over all others and in the late sixties actively disliked feedback and the psychedelic histrionics of Jimi Hendrix.
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