ventriloquist
pronunciation
How to pronounce ventriloquist in British English:
UK [ven'trɪləkwɪst]
How to pronounce ventriloquist in American English:
US [ven'trɪləkwɪst]
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- Noun:
- a performer who projects the voice into a wooden dummy
Word Origin
- ventriloquist
- ventriloquist: [17] A ventriloquist is etymologically a ‘stomach-speaker’. The word is an anglicization of late Latin ventriloquus, a compound formed from Latin venter ‘stomach’ (source also of English ventral [18] and ventricle [14]) and loquī ‘speak’ (source of English colloquial [18], elocution [15], eloquent [14], loquacious [17], etc).The ultimate model for this was Greek eggastrímuthos ‘speaking in the stomach’. The term was originally a literal one; it referred to the supposed phenomenon of speaking from the stomach or abdomen, particularly as a sign of possession by an evil spirit. It was not used for the trick of throwing one’s voice until the end of the 18th century.=> colloquial, elocution, eloquent, locution, loquatious, ventral, ventricle
- ventriloquist (n.)
- 1650s in the classical sense, from ventriloquy + -ist. In the modern sense from c. 1800. Ventriloquists in ancient Greece were Pythones, a reference to the Delphic Oracle. Another English word for them was gastromyth.
Example
- 1. If I did , you 're a ventriloquist .
- 2. To practice your ventriloquist voice , keep your lips motionless .
- 3. " The railing is old , " interpolated a fifth , who had the voice of a ventriloquist .
- 4. Uncle jojo the ventriloquist ?
- 5. One is a ventriloquist , another a sleepwalker .