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Mind your language

The dramatic evolution of ‘actor’

14 August 2021

9:00 AM

14 August 2021

9:00 AM

‘That chap in Line of Duty. That’s what I’d call a bad actor,’ said my husband with vague certainty. He was responding to a remark on the wireless about Iran being a bad actor.

Language, as usual, is in a state of transition. Actor is now employed to mean some person, or moral entity, acting in a good or bad way.

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