Orator
67175
225664651
2008-07-14T20:16:22Z
AndreasJS
469010
/* Modern orators */ consolidate refs
{{Cleanup|date=June 2007}}
{{Wiktionary|orator}}
{{Mergeto|Oratory|date=August 2007}}
{{Mergeto|Public speaking|date=October 2007}}
'''Orator''' is an originally [[Latin]] word for (public) '''speaker'''.
==Etymology==
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. "Oratio" is actually two words combined "oris" and "ratio" meaning "spoken reason".
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 [[politician]]s and [[lawyer]]s. As the [[Ancient Greece|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 [[lecture]]rs, 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 (politics)|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 [[university|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 degree]]s.
'''Grand Orator''' is a high rank in the [[Grand Lodge]]s 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 [[sermon]]s.
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]]
* [[Father Divine]]
* [[Louis Farrakhan]]
* [[Thomas Guthrie]]
* [[Robert Hall]]
* [[Vincent Houdry]]
* Rev. [[Jesse Jackson]]
* [[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]]
* [[José Agostinho de Macedo]]
* [[James Martineau]]
* [[Jacques-Marie-Louis Monsabré]]
* [[Timoléon Cheminais de Montaigu]]
* [[David Moriarty]]
* [[Gian Paolo Oliva]]
* [[Péter Pázmány]]
* Rev. [[Adam Clayton Powell, Sr.]]
* [[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]]
* [[Malcom X]]
==Other famous orators==
===Ancient and medieval orators===
*[[Perikles]], Athenian statesman
*[[Aspasia]], Pericles's spouse
*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 Republic|Roman]] dictator
*[[Claudius Aelianus]] ''meliglossos'' 'honey-tongued'
*[[Decimus Magnus Ausonius]]
*[[Cicero]]
*[[Domitius Afer]]
*[[Eumenius]]
*[[Francesco Petrarch]], father of humanism
*[[Gaius Scribonius Curio]]
*[[Hegesippus (orator)|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 Republic|Roman]])
*[[Nazarius (rhetorician)|Nazarius]]
*[[Paul of Tarsos]], thirteenth [[Twelve apostles|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.
* The [[Great Triumvirate]]:
**[[Henry Clay]]
**[[John C. Calhoun]]
**[[Daniel Webster]]
*Orators for [[Abolition]], [[Emancipation]], and [[Women's Rights]]:
**[[Susan B. Anthony]]
**[[Mary McLeod Bethune]]<ref name = "Leeman ">African American Orators: A Bio-Critical Sourcebook, edited by Richard W. Leeman, Greenwood Publishing Group, 1996. ISBN:0313290148</ref>
**[[Anna Julia Cooper]]<ref name = "Leeman "/>
**[[Frederick Douglass]]
**[[Marian Wright Edelman]]<ref name = "Leeman "/>
**[[Marcus Garvey]]
**[[Sarah Grimke]]<ref name = "Leeman "/>
**[[Frances Ellen Watkins Harper]]<ref name = "Leeman "/>
**[[Robert G. Ingersoll]]
**[[Margaret Sanger]]
**[[Elizabeth Cady Stanton]]
**[[Maria W. Stewart]]<ref name = "Leeman "/>
**[[Mary Church Terrell]]<ref name = "Leeman "/>
**[[Sojourner Truth]]<ref name = "Leeman "/>
**[[Ida B. Wells]] (Ida B. Wells-Barnett)<ref name = "Leeman "/>
**[[William Whipper]]<ref name = "Leeman "/>
**[[Fannie Barrier Williams]]<ref name = "Leeman "/>
*[[Allied leaders of World War II|Allied]] and [[Axis leaders of World War II|Axis]] leaders of [[World War II]] noted for their speeches:
**[[Winston Churchill]] ([[Prime Minister of the United Kingdom|UK PM]])
**[[Charles de Gaulle]] ('Free French' general; President)
**[[Joseph Goebbels]]
**[[Adolf Hitler]] ([[Führer]] of [[Nazi Germany]])
**[[Douglas MacArthur]] - [[wikisource:MacArthur's Farewell Speech to Congress|Farewell Speech to Congress]]
**[[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] ([[President of the United States|US President]])
*U.S. [[Civil Rights Movement]] and [[Black Power]] orators:
**[[Shirley Chisholm]]<ref name = "Leeman "/>
**[[Eldridge Cleaver]]<ref name = "Leeman "/>
**[[Angela Davis]]<ref name = "Leeman "/>
**[[Vernon Johns]]<ref name = "Leeman "/>
**[[Barbara Jordan]]<ref name = "Leeman "/>
**[[Dr. Martin Luther King]]
**[[Thurgood Marshall]]<ref name = "Leeman "/>
**[[Adam Clayton Powell, Jr.]]<ref name = "Leeman "/>
**[[Andrew Young]]<ref name = "Leeman "/>
*[[William Jennings Bryan]] - [[Cross of Gold speech]]
*[[Ralph Waldo Emerson]]
*[[Edward Everett]]
*[[Patrick Henry]] - [[Give me Liberty, or give me Death!]]
*[[Nelson Mandela]]
*[[John F.Kennedy]] ([[President of the United States|US President]]) - [[Wikiquote:John F. Kennedy#Inaugural Address (1961)|inaugural address]]
*[[Martin Luther King, Jr.]]
*[[Vladimir Lenin]]
*[[Soekarno]]
*[[Abraham Lincoln]] ([[President of the United States|US President]]) - [[Gettysburg address]]
*[[Jawaharlal Nehru]]
*[[Richard M. Nixon]] ([[President of the United States|US President]]) - [[Checkers speech]]
*[[Barack Obama]]
*[[Ronald Reagan]] ([[President of the United States|US President]]) - [[First Inaugural address of Ronald Reagan|First Inaugural Address]], [[Tear down this wall|Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!]]
==Notes==
{{Reflist}}
==Sources and references==
(incomplete)
*[http://www.americanrhetoric.com American Rhetoric]
*[http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=orator&searchmode=none EtymologyOnLine]
*[[Catholic Encyclopaedia]] (passim)
*1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica (passim)
*[http://www.calmason.com/orator.htm Californian mason site]
*African American Orators: A Bio-Critical Sourcebook, edited by Richard W. Leeman, Greenwood Publishing Group, 1996. ISBN:0313290148
[[Category:Public speaking]]
[[Category:Rhetoric]]
[[bg:Оратор]]
[[de:Orator]]
[[el:Ρήτορας]]
[[fr:Orateurs attiques]]
[[pl:Orator]]
[[ru:Оратор]]
[[sl:Govornik]]