actor [ME] An actor was originally simply ‘a doer’, usually an agent or an administrator; the theatrical sense dates from the mid 16th century. Like act [LME] it comes from Latin actus ‘thing done’, which comes from agere ‘to do, drive’. This is the basis of other English words such as agenda [E17th] ‘things to be done’; agent [LME] ‘someone or thing who does things’; agile [LME] ‘able to do things’; agitate [LME] originally meaning ‘drive away’; ambiguous [LME] ‘drive in both ways’; transaction [LME] ‘something driven across or through’ and many more. Actuality [LME] originally had the sense ‘activity’; from Old French actualite from actualis ‘active, practical’. The modern French word actualité (usually meaning ‘news’) is sometimes used in English to mean ‘truth’, a sense not found in French, as in: ‘When asked why the company had not been advised to include the potential military use, he [Alan Clark] said it was our old friend economical…with the actualité’ (Independent 10 November 1992).