A tragedian is either an actor who performs in tragedies, or a writer who writes them. The same word does both jobs, and only the sentence tells you which is meant. When it means the writer, you are almost always reading about the ancient Greeks — Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides are "the three great tragedians". This use is standard in books about literature and drama. When it means the actor, the flavour is different and rather old. A tragedian was a serious stage actor of the eighteenth or nineteenth century who specialised in the heavy roles: Hamlet, Lear, Macbeth. Such actors were famous in their day, travelled with their own costumes, and had a reputation for large gestures and a booming voice. Because of that, the word can be used lightly of someone who makes an ordinary sadness into a big performance — "don't be such a tragedian" — though this is not very common, and most speakers would say drama queen instead. Either way the word is formal and bookish. The feminine form tragedienne exists for actresses and appears in older writing; today most people simply say tragedian or just actor.

悲劇作家；悲劇演員。兩個意思共用一個字，讀希臘文學時通常指劇作家，讀劇場史時指專演悲劇的舞台演員。