The Definition of "Hypocrisy"

So I hear someone claim that the definition of "Hypocrisy" literally means "being of two minds" -- and I liked that -- it was enlightening, it was original. Often we misuse words, we don't honor the shades of meaning they can represent. One should understand the meaning of a word, and this person was helping me.

But when I look it up I see "Hypocrisy" comes from Middle English: from Old French "ypocrisie", via ecclesiastical Latin, from Greek "hupokrisis" ‘acting of a theatrical part,’ from "hupokrinesthai" ‘play a part, pretend,’ from hupo ‘under’ + krinein ‘decide, judge.’ Did you get all that?

Then I wonder if the person who made the statement about "Hypocrisy" is an idiot, like nobody would actually check to see if they are right about what they said. Or possibly they have made up the meaning of this word in their head.

It could be they were acting as a hypocrite, fulfilled literally the definition of the word they claimed they were defining in error.

But mostly I was pissed at the fucking nonsense I head people spout off, and it sounds good, but it is stupid and untrue.



*