rhetorician
/rɛtəˈrɪʃ(ə)n
/noun
1An expert in formal rhetoric.Olson, Richard McKeon, and Ronald Crane put hundreds of graduate students at least on speaking terms with classical rhetoric, and rhetoricians were active in the Hutchins college as well....
- Including the term ‘rhetoric,’ we rhetoricians argued, would help to both demystify the term and avoid giving the impression that the option was a sort of vocational track.
- To the extent that Hoppin influenced Robinson, he would have accorded classical rhetoric primary importance and singled out Quintilian as the rhetorician deserving the highest praise.
1.1A speaker whose words are primarily intended to impress or persuade: they’re ready to listen to any smooth-tongued rhetorician...
- By contrast, the new abolitionist calls are being issued primarily by rhetoricians in the field who consider, in Young's words, art as grammar.
- Hence the rhetorician who wants to persuade by arguments or proofs can adapt most of the dialectical equipment.
- Although Hairston, Young, Becker and Pike take for granted that Rogers' theories are appropriate for use by rhetoricians as a means to persuade, this is not the case.
Origin
Late Middle English: from Old French rethoricien, from rhetorique (see rhetoric).