different between antagonist vs deuteragonist

English

Etymology

From Latin antagonista, from Ancient Greek ???????????? (antag?nist?s, “opponent”) (???? (antí, “against”) + ????????? (ag?nist?s, “a combatant, pleader, actor”)), from ?????????????? (antag?nízesthai, “antagonize”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /æn?tæ??n?st/

Noun

antagonist (plural antagonists)

1. An opponent or enemy.
   • 1594, Richard Hooker, Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie

     our antagonists in these controversies

2. One who antagonizes or stirs.
3. (biochemistry) A chemical that binds to a receptor but does not produce a physiological response, blocking the action of agonist chemicals.
   • 2001: The calcium antagonists represent one of the top ten classes of prescription drugs in terms of commercial value, with worldwide sales of nearly $10 billion in 1999. — Leslie Iversen, Drugs: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford 2001, p. 41)
4. (authorship) The main character or force opposing the protagonist in a literary work or drama.
5. (anatomy) A muscle that acts in opposition to another.

   A flexor, which bends a part, is the antagonist of an extensor, which extends it.

Antonyms

• protagonist
• agonist (biochemistry)

Related terms

Translations

Anagrams

• stagnation

Danish

Noun

antagonist c (singular definite antagonisten, plural indefinite antagonister)

1. (literature) antagonist

Declension

Synonyms

• skurk

Further reading

• “antagonist” in Den Danske Ordbog

Romanian

Etymology

From French antagoniste, from Latin antagonista.

Adjective

antagonist m or n (feminine singular antagonist?, masculine plural antagoni?ti, feminine and neuter plural antagoniste)

1. antagonist

Declension

English

Etymology

Ancient Greek ??????????????? (deuterag?nist?s, literally “second actor”), originally in Greek drama, from ????????? (ag?nist?s, “a combatant, pleader, actor”).

Surface analysis deuter- (“second”) +? agonist (“combatant, participant”).

Pronunciation

Noun

deuteragonist (plural deuteragonists)

1. (narratology) A secondary character; specifically, the second most important character (after the protagonist).
   • 2001, Donatella Izzo, Portraying the Lady: Technologies of Gender in the Short Stories of Henry James, University of Nebraska Press, page 58,

     The issue is no longer about the artistic representation of woman going on within the story: rather, the art object, now unrelated to the actual woman (at a literal level, at any rate), becomes her deuteragonist and antagonist, and the opposition thus settled becomes further complicated by reversal, exchanges, shifts in their respective positions.

2. (historical, ancient Greek drama) An actor playing a role (potentially all roles) requiring a second actor to be present on the stage, opposite the protagonist.
   • 2008, A. J. Boyle (editor), Octavia: Attributed to Seneca, Oxford University Press, page 93,

     The first disposition accords with the attested reality of Nero acting in masks resembling his own features or those of women with whom he was in love (Suet. Nero 21.3), especially Poppaea (Dio 63.9.5), and generates a set of roles for the deuteragonist all of which focus on failed counsel; it also underlines the parallelism between the Seneca-Nero and Nero-Prefect scenes, and reinforces the view that the First and Second Prefect are not identical.

   • 2018, Steven Rendall (translator), Jacques Jouanna, Sophocles: A Study of His Theater in Its Political and Social Context, Princeton University Press, page 201,

     In the distribution of the other roles between the deuteragonist and the tritagonist, the same criteria must have applied. When two characters had an important part in a tragedy and could not be played by a single protagonist, the second was played by the deuteragonist. […] The tritagonist, even more than the deuteragonist, had to play several secondary roles.

Usage notes

Much less commonly used in everyday speech than protagonist – while protagonist is a common term, deuteragonist is technical.

Synonyms

• sidekick

Coordinate terms

• protagonist
• tritagonist

Translations

See also

• antagonist

Serbo-Croatian

Etymology

From Ancient Greek ??????????????? (deuterag?nist?s, literally “second actor”)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /deutera??nist/
• Hyphenation: de?u?te?ra?go?nist

Noun

deuteragònist m (Cyrillic spelling ??????????????)

1. deuteragonist

Declension

Further reading

• “deuteragonist” in Hrvatski jezi?ni portal