hypocrite: [13] Etymologically, a hypocrite is someone who is ‘playing a part’, merely pretending. The word comes via Old French ypocrite and late Latin hypocrita from Greek hupokritēs ‘actor, hypocrite’. This was a derivative of hupokrínein, a compound verb formed from the prefix hupo- ‘under’ and krínein ‘separate’, which originally meant literally ‘separate gradually’, and eventually passed via ‘answer’ and ‘answer one’s fellow actor on stage’ to ‘play a part’, and hence ‘pretend’.
