orator

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Orator is an originally Latin word for (public) speaker.

Word history

It is recorded in English since c.1374, meaning "one who pleads or argues for a cause," from Anglo-French oratour, from Old French orateur (14c.), from Latin orator "speaker," from orare "speak before a court or assembly, plead," from a Proto-Indo-European base *or- "to pronounce a ritual formula". The modern meaning "public speaker" is attested from c.1430.

The derived word oration, originally used for prayer since c.1375, now means (recorded since 1502) any formal speech, as on a ceremonial occasion or delivered in similar high-flown or pompous manner. Also another word for oratist.

Its etymological doublet orison is recorded since c.1175, from Anglo-French oreison, Old French oraison "oration" (12c.), from Latin oratio "speech, oration," notably in Church Latin "prayer, appeal to God," from orare as above, but retained its devotional specialisation.

One meaning of the word oratory is abstract: the art of public speaking.

There is also the equivalent Greek word rhētōr, hence the abstract noun rhetoric.

A person who is an orator may also be called an "oratarian" - literally "he who orates."

History

In ancient Rome, the art of speaking in public (Ars Oratoria) was a professional competence especially cultivated by politicians and lawyers. As the Greeks were still seen as the masters in this field, as in philosophy and most sciences, the leading Roman families often either sent their sons to study these things under a famous master in Greece (as was the case with the young Julius Caesar) or engaged a Greek teacher (under pay or as a slave).

In the 18th century, 'Orator' John Henley was famous for his eccentric sermons.

In the 19th century, orators and lecturers, such as Mark Twain, Charles Dickens, and Col. Robert G. Ingersoll were major providers of popular entertainment.

Formal titles

In the young revolutionary French republic, Orateur (French for Orator, but compare the Anglosaxon parliamentary speaker) was the term for the delegated members of the Tribunat to the Corps législatif to motivate their ruling on a presented bill.

In some universities the title 'Orator' is given to the official whose task it is to give speeches on ceremonial occasions, such as the presentation of honorary degrees.

Grand Orator is a high rank in the Grand Lodges of Freemasonry in certain US states (including Alabama, Arizona, ,California (where 'The Grand Orator shall deliver an address at each Annual Communication of the Grand Lodge upon matters appertaining to the Craft and deliver such other addresses as the Grand Master may request.' - California Masonic Code #3050), Missouri, North Carolina)

Pulpit orator

This term denotes Christian authors, often clergymen, who are renowned for their ability to write and/or deliver (from the pulpit in church, hence the word) rhetorically skilled religious sermons.

Examples are:

• William Lindsay Alexander
• Jean-Nicolas Beauregard
• Jean-Baptiste-Charles-Marie de Beauvais
• Henry Ward Beecher
• Henry Whitney Bellows
• Jaques Bossuet
• Louis Bourdaloue
• Charles de Bouvens
• Athanase Laurent Charles Coquerel
• Thomas Guthrie
• Robert Hall
• Vincent Houdry
• Joseph de Jouvancy
• Thomas Ken
• Jean-Baptiste-Henri-Dominique Lacordaire
• Jean de La Haye
• William Jay
• Jean-François-Anne Landriot
• Hugh Latimer
• William Laud
• Camille Lefebvre
• Jose Agostinho De Macedo
• James Martineau
• Jacques-Marie-Louis Monsabré
• Timoléon Cheminais de Montaigu
• David Moriarty
• Gian Paolo Oliva
• Péter Pázmány
• Berthold of Ratisbon
• Father Abram J. Ryan
• Girolamo Savonarola
• Georg Scherer
• Robert South
• Valentin Thalhofer
• Gioacchino Ventura di Raulica
• Antonio Vieira
• Nikolaus von Dinkelsbühl
• Johann Geiler von Kayserberg
• Friedrich Ludwig Zacharias Werner
• Minister Louis Farrakhan
• Minister Jesse Jackson

Other famous orators

Ancient and medieval orators

• Perikles, Athenian statesman
• the ten Attic orators (Greece)
  • Demosthenes (champion of the philippica), best-known
  • Aeschines
  • Andocides
  • Antiphon (person)
  • Dinarchus
  • Hypereides
  • Lysias
  • Isaeus
  • Isocrates
  • Lycurgus of Athens
• Aristogeiton (two orators)
• Julius Caesar, Roman dictator
• Claudius Aelianus meliglossos 'honey-tongued'
• Decimus Magnus Ausonius
• Cicero
• Domitius Afer
• Eumenius
• Francesco Petrarch, father of humanism
• Gaius Scribonius Curio
• Hegesippus, Athenian
• Hermagoras of Temnos, Rhodian school
• Cato the Elder (Roman Republic- calling for the final Punic war)
• Licinius Macer Calvus Roman republican poet and orator
• Marcus Licinius Crassus (Roman)
• Nazarius
• Paul of Tarsos, thirteenth Apostle
• Peter the Hermit, calling for the First Crusade
• Quintus Hortensius
• Marcus Fabius Quintilianus
• Seneca the Rhetorician, father of Nero's better-known teacher

Modern orators

Though most politicians (by nature of their office) may perform many speeches, as do those who support or oppose a political issue, to include them all would be prohibitive. The following are those who have been noted as famous specifically for their oratory abilities, and/or a particularly famous speech or speeches.

• Allied and Axis leaders of World War II noted for their speeches:
  • Winston Churchill (UK PM)
  • Charles de Gaulle ('Free French' general; President)
  • Joseph Goebbels
  • Adolf Hitler (Führer of Nazi Germany)
  • Douglas MacArthur - Farewell Speech to Congress
  • Franklin D. Roosevelt (US President)
• William Jennings Bryan - Cross of Gold speech
• Frederick Douglass
• Ralph Waldo Emerson
• Edward Everett
• The Great Triumvirate:
  • Henry Clay
  • John C. Calhoun
  • Daniel Webster
• Patrick Henry - Give me Liberty, or give me Death!
• John F.Kennedy (US President) - inaugural address
• Martin Luther King, Jr.
• Vladimir Lenin
• Abraham Lincoln (US President) - Gettysburg address
• Jawaharlal Nehru
• Richard M. Nixon (US President) - Checkers speech
• Ronald Reagan (US President) - Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!
• Malcolm X

Notes

Sources and references

(incomplete)

• American Rhetoric
• EtymologyOnLine
• Catholic Encyclopaedia (passim)
• 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica (passim)
• Californian mason site

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