audient
nounEtymology Borrowed from Latin audientem, accusative singular of audiēns (“hearing, listening; attending, paying attention to”) (or directly from audiēns), the present active participle of audiō (“to hear, listen to; to attend, pay attention to”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ewis (“clearly, manifestly”) (from *h₂ew- (“to perceive, see”)) + *dʰh₁-ye/o- (“to render”). The noun may be borrowed from Late Latin audiēns (“catechumen”), from the participle audiēns.
1
Uncommon A hearer; a member of an audience.
- The audients of her ſad ſtorie, felt great motions both of pitie and admiration for her miſfortunes: […]1612–1620, [Miguel de Cervantes], “Which Treates of the Discretion of the Beautifull Dorotea, and the Artificiall Manner Used to Disswade the Amorous Knight from Continuing His Penance: And How He was Gotten Away; with Many Other Delightfull and Pleasant Occurrences”, in Thomas Shelton, transl., The History of the Valorous and Wittie Knight-errant Don-Quixote of the Mancha. […], London: […] William Stansby, for Ed[ward] Blount and W. Barret, →OCLC, part 1, page 300:
- Let me not ſee you act now, / In your Scholaſticke way, you brought to towne wi'yee, / With ſee ſaw ſacke a downe, like a Sawyer; / Nor in a Comicke Scene, play Hercules furens, / Tearing your throat to ſplit the Audients eares.c. 1638, Richard Brome, The Antipodes: […], London: Printed by I[ohn] Okes, for Francis Constable, […], published 1640, →OCLC; republished in The Dramatic Works of Richard Brome Containing Fifteen Comedies Now First Collected in Three Volumes, volume III, London: John Pearson […], 1873, →OCLC, Act II, scene ii, page 259:
3 more examples
- In each case, an individual author confronts an individual responder, an ‘audient’, with a single artistic construct. (Even in co-written books, there is a unified authorship, and even in communal play-going, the experience involves a discrete work presented in a discrete form to a discrete ‘audient’.)2011, Eugene Eoyang, “The Myth of Unity and Coherence in Narrative: An Intercultural Perspective”, in Steven Shankman, Amiya Dev, editors, Epic and Other Higher Narratives: Essays in Intercultural Studies, Noida, National Capital Region, India: Longman, published by Dorling Kindersley (India), →ISBN, page 54:
- Fifty-five minutes later, the audience demanded encores and were rewarded with a little more Mario and the mellow tones of Jimmy Smith and Reuben Wilson. ‘I loved it’, said one audient, as she filed out of the auditorium at the end of the show. ‘Where did you get the idea?’2019, Kenneth B. McAlpine, “Fakebit, Fans, and 8-Bit Covers”, in Bits and Pieces: A History of Chiptunes, New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 223:
- I came to understand that the performance experience is a process whereby we forge an adaptable dialogue between audient and performer, a communal conversation: “in performance, the audience is present and interacting with the creators during the creative process itself.[…]” (Sawyer 2006, 7). […] A truly remarkable work, tend is a piece that I hope one day to experience as an audient. […] In fully acknowledging the audient as an active participant it explores the beauty of the human form through human interactions and urges us all to search for common ground and empathy.2021, Winnie Huang, “The Pragmatic Musical-Gestural Performer”, in William Brooks, editor, Experience Music Experiment: Pragmatism and Artistic Research (Orpheus Institute Series), Leuven: Leuven University Press, →ISBN, part 1 (Doing), page 52:
2
Obsolete, Specifically A catechumen (“convert to Christianity under instruction before baptism”) in the early Christian Church.
- This aforesaid doctor [John Chrysostom] in divers places of his writings both sharply and grievously reproveth his audients for their slack coming unto the Lord's table, and exhorteth them many times in the year, yea, daily (if they have pure minds) to come unto the holy communion.1560, Thomas Becon [i.e., Thomas Beccon], “The Fifth Part of the Catechism. Of the Sacraments. [Of the Lord’s Supper]”, in John Ayre, editor, The Catechism of Thomas Becon, S.T.P. […] (Parker Society for the Publication of the Works of the Fathers and Early Writers of the Reformed English Church; 3), Cambridge: Printed at the University Press, published 1844, →OCLC, pages 258–259:
- […] And they were called Catechumeni, who were vnder their inſtruction, and had not yet profited ſo farre, that they might be admitted to receiue the Sacraments. S. Ciprian calleth theſe Audientes, that is, hearers, and the Catechiſt, Doctorem Audientium, that is, the teacher of the hearers.[1591?, Jeremias Bastingius, “[The Preface to the Catechisme]”, in An Exposition or Commentarie vpon the Catechisme of Christian Religion […], Cambridge: Printed by Iohn Legatt. […], →OCLC: