oratiuncle

oratiuncle

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin ōrātiuncula, from ōrātiō (“speech”) + -uncula (feminine diminutive suffix).

Noun

oratiuncle (plural oratiuncles)

1. (rare) short speech or oration
   • 1681, White Kennett, A Letter from a Student at Oxford to a Friend in the Country Concerning the Approaching Parliament, in Vindication of His Majesty, the Church of England and University, pages 3–4:

     As he was his friends chief Advocate he thinks it his duty to become Oratour, therefore in two or three ſhort and ſweet oratiuncles (each of which might have been Printed by F. S. for a Speech of a Noble Peer of the Realm) he exhorts them to make the ſame worthy choiſe […]

   • 1832, John Wilson, “Noctes Ambrosianæ” in Blackwood’s Magazine, volume 32, page 393:

     […] one or other of the two had risen, and in a short, plain, unvarnished oratiuncle, told the company that the thing must be done, and why […]

   • 1889, William Gladstone, quoted in H. C. G. Matthew, Gladstone 1809-1898, published 1997, page 568:

     I was persuaded to go up the tower & propose his health in a French oratiuncle, visited the exhibitions, and made the speeches.