Chironŏmos
(
χειρονόμος). Generally, any person who employs the art of
gesticulation to express his meaning without the aid of language; thence, also, a pantomimic
actor on the stage (
Juv.vi. 63); and one who performs any duty with
regular, studied, or theatrical movements; whence the same term is applied by the satirists to
the slave who carved up the dishes at great entertainments with a pompous flourish of his
knife (
Juv.v. 121; cf.
Petron. xxxvi.).