hypocriteyoudaoicibaDictYouDict
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’.
hypocrite (n.)youdaoicibaDictYouDict
c. 1200, ypocrite, from Old French ypocrite (12c., Modern French hypocrite), from Church Latin hypocrita, from Greek hypokrites "stage actor, pretender, dissembler," from hypokrinesthai (see hypocrisy).