raconteur
English
WOTD – 4 February 2009
Etymology
Borrowed from French raconteur.
Pronunciation
- (UK) IPA(key): /ˌɹæk.ɒnˈtəː/, /ˌɹæk.ɔ̃(n)ˈtəː/
- (US) IPA(key): /ˌɹæk.ɑnˈtɝ/, /ˌɹæk.ɔ̃(n)ˈtɝ/
,Audio (US): (file) Audio (US): (file) Audio (General Australian): (file)
Noun
raconteur (plural raconteurs)
- A storyteller, especially a person noted for telling stories with skill and wit.
- 1888, Henry James, The Liar:
- He was tempted to try the last door—to look into the room of evil fame; but he reflected that this would be indiscreet, since Colonel Capadose handled the brush—as a raconteur—with such freedom. There might be a ghost and there might not; but the Colonel himself, he inclined to think, was the most mystifying figure in the house.
- 1905, W. G. Aston, chapter 5, in Shinto: The Way of the Gods, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., page 79:
- It is notoriously possible for the author of a fictitious narrative to become, after a time, unable to distinguish it from a statement of actual facts. There is a case on record in which a learned judge communicated to the Psychical Society in perfect good faith a ghost story, all the principal features of which were proved to be imaginary. They had their origin in his own talent as a distinguished raconteur.
Translations
storyteller
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Verb
raconteur (third-person singular simple present raconteurs, present participle raconteuring, simple past and past participle raconteured)
- To make witty remarks or stories.
- 2003, Michel Faber, The Crimson Petal and the White[1], →ISBN, page 155:
- The two of them turn to each other and raise an eyebrow each, their signal to slip into alternating raconteuring.
Translations
To make witty remarks or stories
Anagrams
French
Etymology
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ʁa.kɔ̃.tœʁ/
Noun
raconteur m (plural raconteurs, feminine raconteuse)
Further reading
- “raconteur”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.