Persian: origin of هنرپیشه (actor/actress)

[Haji Firouz]

Hello,

I was wondering about the origins of the word هنرپیشه ("actor"/"actress").
I noticed it is derived from هنر , which means "knowledge"/"art"/"skill"/"talent", according to: هنر - Wiktionary

However, any career path requires talent and knowledge in order to be succesful. How would you explain that particularly the word for actor/actress has talent in its root?

Curious as usual to read your replies 🙂 / Happy Val everyone!

Thanks,

 

[PersoLatin]

I was wondering about the origins of the word هنرپیشه ("actor"/"actress").
I noticed it is derived from هنر , which means "knowledge"/"art"/"skill"/"talent", according to: هنر - Wiktionary

هنر these days refers to 'art' only (maybe it has always done), something that can not necessarily be taught/learned.

پیشه means profession/job and هنرپیشه by this definition applies to whoever earns a living from their artistic skill, I don't think much thinking went into selecting it for an actress/actor.

 

[fdb]

This (modern) Persian word is presumably a calque on French "artiste" (in the sense of "actor, actress").

 

[PersoLatin]

This (modern) Persian word is presumably a calque on French "artiste" (in the sense of "actor, actress").

Yes it is, in fact artiste/آرتیست is still used, certainly by the older generation mainly for an 'actor'.

I think ‏هنرمند is closer to artiste/آرتیست but there we are.

 

[Haji Firouz]

Thank you! It makes much more sense to me now, and it also reminded me that in Romanian we have the expression "artist of cinema" (to put it literally) - for actor/actress. It's rather out of use.