dramata

English

Etymology

From the Ancient Greek δρᾱ́ματα (drā́mata), the nominative plural form of δρᾶμα (drâma).

Pronunciation

• (UK) enPR: dräʹmətə, IPA^(key): /ˈdɹɑːmətə/
• (US) enPR: dräʹmətə, IPA^(key): /ˈdɹɑmətə/

Noun

dramata pl

1. plural of drama
   • ante 1615, J.H.^?, This World’s Folly; or a Warning-Piece discharged upon the Wickedness thereof:

     I will not particularize those Blitea dramata (as Laberius tearmes another sort) those Fortune-fatted fooles and Time’s Idoets, whose garbe is the Toothache of witte, the Plague-sore of Judgement, the Common-sewer of Obscœnitie, and the Traine-powder that dischargeth the roaring Meg of all scurrile villainies upon the Cities face; who are fain to produce blinde Impudence to personate himselfe upon their stage, behung with chaynes of garlicke, as an Antidote against their owne infectious breaths, lest it should kill their Oyster-crying Audience.

   • 1692, Marcus Aurelius (Emperor of Rome) [author] and Meric Caſaubon [translator], The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus the Roman Emperor, Concerning Himſelf, book X, page 205, § XXVII (5th edition; first published in 1634)

     XXVII. Ever to mind and conſider with thy ſelf, how all things that now are, have been heretofore much after the ſame ſort, and after the ſame faſhion that now they are: and ſo to think of thoſe things which ſhall be hereafter alſo. Moreover, whole dramata, and uniform ſcenes, [or, ſcenes that comprehend the lives and actions of men of one calling and profeſſion,] as many as either in thine own experience thou haſt known, or by reading of ancient Hiſtories; (as the whole Court of Adrianus, the whole Court of Antoninus Pius, the whole Court of Philippus, that of Alexander, that of Crœſus:) to ſet them all before thine eyes. For thou ſhalt find that they are all but after one ſort and faſhion: [or, all of the ſame kind and nature:] onely that the actours were others.

   • 1821, November 16th: George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron, Letter to Douglas Kinnaird

     “Cain” should be published in the same volume with the two other dramata.

   • 2003, Gregory Nagy and Anna Stavrakopoulou (editors), Modern Greek Literature: Critical Essays, chapter 1: Panagiotis A. Agapitos, “Ancient Models and Novel Mixtures: The Concept of Genre in Byzantine Funerary Literature from Photios to Eustathios of Thessalonike”, page 14:

     This is especially marked in the dramata of Prodromos and Eugeneianos, which are composed, just like the poetic monodies we have seen, in iambic verse.

   • 2006, Peter Vorderer and Jennings Bryant (editors), Playing Video Games: Motives, Responses, and Consequences, chapter 26: Ute Ritterfeld and René Weber, “Video Games for Entertainment and Education”, page 409

     Recently, so-called pedagogical dramata (e.g., Marsella, Johnson, & LaBore, 2003), which utilize interactive game play to teach successful communication strategies, were introduced. […] Similar to educational games, pedagogical dramata pursue an explicit learning goal. […] Because the development of pedagogical dramata is still in its very beginning, the technology has not yet been applied to less mature audiences[.]

Latin

Noun

drāmata

1. nominative/accusative/vocative plural of drāma