choragus

American  

[kuh-rey-guhs, koh-, kaw-] / kəˈreɪ gəs, koʊ-, kɔ- /

noun

plural

choragi, choraguses

1. (in ancient Greece)

   1. the leader of a dramatic chorus.

   2. a person who undertook the expense of providing for such a chorus.

2. any conductor of an entertainment or festival.

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choragus British  

/ kɔːˈrædʒɪk, -ˈreɪ-, kɔːˈreɪɡəs /

noun

1. 1. the leader of a chorus

   2. a sponsor of a chorus

2. a conductor of a festival

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Other Word Forms

• choragic adjective

Etymology

Origin of choragus

1620–30; < Latin < Greek chorāgós, dialectal variant of chorēgós, equivalent to chor ( ós ) chorus + -ēgos, combining form of ágein to lead

Example Sentences

At one moment a character is declaiming like a choragus; at the next he may be slanging to beat Broadway.

From Time Magazine Archive

For I should be appointed as choragus for tragedies and should call on him to exchange with me, he would prefer to be choragus ten times rather than exchange once with me.

From The Orations of Lysias by Lysias

When it had attained its highest pitch, at a sign from the choragus it ceased—ceased with such suddenness as to impart an impression that was positively uneasy.

From A Frontier Mystery by Mitford, Bertram

The chorus came forward, all the singers clad in the Greek costume, at their head as choragus Johannes Diemer, arrayed in diadem and toga.

From On the Cross A Romance of the Passion Play at Oberammergau by Hillern, Wilhelmine von

He put up a tablet in memory of his success bearing the words: Themistokles of Phrearri was choragus, Phrynichus wrote the play, Adeimantus was archon.

From Plutarch's Lives, Volume I by Stewart, Aubrey