The Death of the English Language: The Misuse of 'Protagonist'

Greetings and salutations my friends, allow me to extend my apologies for the lack of posts in July, barring any disasters, August will be a month of uninhibited learning.

Whenever I am faced with the unenviable task of attempting to fabricate a succession of relevant words with the ever-feared writer's block, I most often turn to that which interests me the most; crimes against our wonderful language by those entrusted with the exchange of written text.

One that I catch every so often in Entertainment sections of daily newspapers is the misuse of the term protagonist.

By definition, portagonist literally means 'first actor' from the Greek (protos and agonistes.) The word is applied to the person or character who drives or promotes the action in a work. The word protagonist is not simply the opposite of antagonist. There can be any number of antagonist in a work, whereas there can only exist a single protagonist.

Another error affiliated with the use of protagonist is the affiliation with the prefix pro and the fact that it implies a positive or admirable stance with the Latin pro-, representing 'for' or 'on behalf'. Protagonists often fit into the aforementioned category, however it is not exclusive to this, and the prefix must be considered as applied in the Greek sense, and not what the Latin origin of the same prefix may suggest.

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