Kilo Lingo

Line drawing of rolulo
Coloured illustration of rolulo
#2856 of 5,000 Core 5000

Translation

character in a story, character in a play or film

Word origin

Built inside Esperanto from rolo, a role, plus -ul-, the suffix for a person characterised by something. Rolo itself is French rôle, the roll of paper an actor's lines were written on.

Origin
Esperanto compound
Root
rolo + -ul-
English cognates
role, roll

Examples

.

The main character of the novel is a young girl.

.

I like that character more than the others.

.

Every character in the book has a voice of its own.

(a role, rank 996) plus --, the suffix for a person defined by a quality: a is the person who has a part, which is to say a character in a story, a play or a game. The protagonist is the ĉefrolulo.

Do not reach for here. In Esperanto that word means character in the sense of temperament, the sort a person has rather than the sort a novelist writes. English uses one word for both and Esperanto refuses to, which is one of the places where the language is simply clearer than its sources. A typographic character, incidentally, is a .

Esperanta literaturo uses throughout, and it is the word you want for any discussion of a book.

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Esperanto · Free printables

rolulo: worksheet, infographic and listicle

Free printable study downloads for the Esperanto word "rolulo" (character in a story, character in a play or film): a worksheet with the answer key built in, an infographic, and a sentence listicle. Open any one to view, print or save.

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This word is part of lesson 58.