Etymograph

English

orator

Orator comes from Latin ōrātor ‘an orator, speaker’, and goes back to ōrō ‘to orate, deliver a speech publicly’.

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEōrō1‘to orate, deliver a speech publicly’
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEōrātor2‘an orator, speaker’
  3. Anglo-Normanc. 1066–1400oratour2
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500oratour2‘an orator’
  5. Englishearliest quotation c. 1587–1588orator2

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, Latin orator
  2. 2 Wiktionary, English orator
  3. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1587–1588, Christopher Marlowe, Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […]: “Tam[burlaine]. Then ſhall we fight couragiouſlye with them? Or…”.

Lineage

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEōrōWiktionary, Latin orator‘to orate, deliver a speech publicly’
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEōrātorWiktionary, English orator‘an orator, speaker’
  3. Anglo-Normanc. 1066–1400oratourWiktionary, English orator
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500oratourWiktionary, English orator‘an orator’
  5. Englishearliest quotation c. 1587–1588oratorWiktionary, English orator. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1587–1588, Christopher Marlowe, Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […]: “Tam[burlaine]. Then ſhall we fight couragiouſlye with them? Or…”

Linked words

through Latin ōrō ‘to orate, deliver a speech publicly’

prose, oracle, inexorable, oration, 11 more

Today it means

noun Someone who orates or delivers an oration.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “orator”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entry for Latin orator. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Latin ōrō / orator

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