Oratour

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. An archaic term for a skilled public speaker who delivers formal addresses ; a person who presents a formal petition or plea to a court or ruler
2. A former word for an eloquent man who gives speeches before an audience ; someone who submits a humble request or petition to a superior
3. Historically, a persuasive speaker who addresses crowds ; a petitioner who brings a written or spoken appeal before an authority

Etymology: "Oratour" is an obsolete spelling of "orator", and the two forms trace back to the same source. Middle English used "oratour", taken from Anglo-Norman "oratour", which in turn came from the Latin "ōrātor", meaning a speaker, pleader or advocate. The Latin word is built on "ōrāre", to speak or plead, the root that also gives English "oral" and "orate". The spelling changed over time, and the earlier form kept the French-style "-our" ending that English later dropped in favour of "-or" in this word. Spelled with that older ending, the word looks a little like the modern "tutor" or "savour", which shows how common the pattern was in medieval English. Its core meaning, a person who speaks formally before an audience, has stayed almost unchanged from Latin to the present.

Synonyms: orator, speaker, rhetorician