ventriloquist

WOTD - 10 September 2008    

English

Etymology

ventriloquy + -ist

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) IPA: /vɛnˈtɹɪl.ə.kwɪst/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪst

Noun

ventriloquist (plural ventriloquists)

1. A person, especially an entertainer, who practices ventriloquism.
   • 1871, Plato, translated by Benjamin Jowett, The Sophist:

     Most ridiculous is the discomfiture which attends the opponents of predication, who, like the ventriloquist Eurycles, have the voice that answers them in their own breast.

   • 1900, L. Frank Baum, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Chapter 15:

     "Oh, I am a ventriloquist," said the little man. "I can throw the sound of my voice wherever I wish, so that you thought it was coming out of the Head. […] "

Synonyms

• biloquist

Derived terms

• ventriloquistic

Translations

a person who practices ventriloquism

Chinese: Mandarin: 口技表演者 (zh) (koǔjì biǎoyǎnzhě), 腹語者 (zh), 腹语者 (zh) (fùyǔzhě) Croatian: trbuhozborac (hr) m. Finnish: vatsastapuhuja (fi) French: ventriloque (fr) m. and f. German: Bauchredner (de) m., Ventriloquist (de) m. Hungarian: hasbeszélő (hu)

Icelandic: búktalari (is) m. Japanese: 腹話術師 (ja) (fukuwajutsushi) Norwegian: buktaler (no) m. Russian: чревовещатель (ru) (črevoveščátel') m. Serbian: trbuhozborac m., трбухозборац (sr) m. Spanish: ventrílocuo (es) Swedish: buktalare c. Turkish: vantrilog (tr)