Recent Examples on the WebOver two millennia ago, the Athenian tragedian Sophocles first described the archetype in his portraits of an angry and old but still fearsome Ajax, and heroic but stubborn and self-fixated Antigone. Victor Davis Hanson, National Review, 12 Nov. 2020 New York Eugene O’Neill, the dour tragedian of 20th-century American theater, was the least likely of men to have tucked a warmhearted family comedy in between his bleak tales of life at its direst. Terry Teachout, WSJ, 31 Jan. 2019 Euripides, the most irreverent of the Greek tragedians, cuts these Homeric figures down to size. Charles Mcnulty, latimes.com, 8 Sep. 2017 Yes, a cast of eight — a big number for a straight play these days, with a big story to tell that evokes the style of such classic American tragedians as Eugene O'Neill and Tennessee Williams. Christopher Arnott, courant.com, 3 Aug. 2017 The name of the island is true to myth, which suggests that someone at DC Comics has been knuckling down to Herodotus and the Greek tragedians. Anthony Lane, The New Yorker, 5 June 2017 There was plenty of rich material here for tragedians to debate. Mary Beard, New York Times, 11 May 2017 See More
Word History
Etymology
Middle English tragedien, from Middle French, from tragedie