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Friday October 23, 2009

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raconteur [rack-on-TUR]

noun

1. A person skilled in telling stories and anecdotes.

• American essayist, writer, political activist and raconteur, 84-year-old Gore Vidal has spent his days rubbing elbows with the elite, from distant cousin Jimmy Carter and the Kennedy clan his mother married into, to Hollywood royalty like Paul Newman and Jack Nicholson.
  Ginger Otis, "VIDAL SIGNS - A PEEK INSIDE AUTHOR GORE VIDAL'S STAR-FILLED PHOTO ALBUM", New York Post, Oct 18, 2009
• Parmelee said his father left his home in St. Albans, Vt., at age 16 or 17 to join the Army and was sent to France, where he drove a supply truck. Parmelee's mother, described as a "great Irish raconteur," often said her husband had had "a damn good time in France." Apparently he struck up a friendship with a 17-year-old French girl and brought food to her family.
  Anne Constable, "WWI Dog Tag Returns to Soldier's Family", The Santa Fe New Mexican, Oct 12, 2009
• The raconteur laughed loudly and leaned back with the satisfaction—or at least some of it--of one who has told a funny story and told it well.
  E. V. Lucas (1868 - 1938) An English writer. A Boswell of Baghdad With Diversions (1917)

Origin of the Word

Raconteur, approximately 1828, derives from French raconter "to recount," from re- + Middle French aconter, from a- "to" + conter "to tell."