raconteur

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day

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🗓️ 18 December 2023

⏱️ 2 minutes

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Summary

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 18, 2023 is:

raconteur • \ra-kahn-TER\ • noun

A raconteur is someone who excels in telling anecdotes.

// A bona fide raconteur, Paola can turn even mundane experiences into hilariously entertaining stories.

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Examples:

“He [filmmaker and author Kenneth Anger] lit and shot and cut images so that no matter how beautiful each was on its own, you had to ingest the totality like a potion and let it do its work if you wanted to get anything out of it. Most viewers weren’t interested in his kind of visual poetry, recognizing him mainly as a raconteur.” — Matt Zoller Seitz, Vulture, 27 May 2023

Did you know?

If you’re a sage of sagas, a bard of ballads, or a pro in prose, you may have lost count of the accounts you’ve recounted. Some might call you a recounter, but as a master of narrative form you may find that recounter lacks a certain je ne sais quoi. Sure, it has a cool story—it traces back to the Latin verb computere, meaning “to count”—but so do many words: compute and computer, count and account, and neither last nor least, raconteur, a singsong title better fit for a whimsical storyteller. English speakers borrowed raconteur from French in the early 19th century.

Transcript

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0:00.0	It's Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 18th.
0:11.2	Today's word is R-A-C-R-A-C-N-T-T-E-O-N-T-E-R. R-C-O-T-E-R-E-R-C-T-E-R-E-R-E-T-E-R-T-E-T-T-E-T-E-R-Tor is someone who excels intelling anecdotes.
0:24.2	Here's the word used in a sentence from Vulture by Matt Zollersites.
0:29.6	He, filmmaker, and author Kenneth Anger, lit and shot and cut images so that no matter how
0:35.8	beautiful each was on its own you had to ingest the totality like a potion
0:40.7	and let it do its work if you wanted to get anything out of it.
0:44.9	Most viewers weren't interested in his kind of visual poetry recognizing him mainly as a
0:50.0	raconteur. If you're a sage of sagas, a bard of
0:53.2	bard of ballads or a pro in prose you may have lost count of the
0:59.2	accounts you've recounted. Some might call you a recouter, but as a master of narrative form, you may find
1:07.5	that recouter lacks a certain jencequa. Sure, it has a cool story. It traces back to the Latin verb computere, meaning to count, but so do many
1:18.3	words including compute and computer, count and a count, and neither last nor least, raconteur, a sing-song title better
1:26.9	fit for a whimsical storyteller.
1:30.1	English speakers borrowed raconteur from French in the early 19th century.
1:34.8	With your word of the day, I'm Peter Sockelowski.
1:37.2	Visit Marion Webster.com today for definitions, word play, and trending word lookups.

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