raconteuse

[rak-uhn-tœz, -tooz, -toos, ra-kawn-tœz]

noun

plural

raconteuses 

1. a woman who is skilled in relating stories and anecdotes interestingly.

Word History and Origins

Origin of raconteuse¹

1860–65; < French, feminine of raconteur raconteur; -euse

Example Sentences

Now, the downtown rock raconteuse Tammy Faye Starlite is celebrating the 40th anniversary of the album — “my magnum opus, my gesamtkunstwerk,” she says, narrating the show as Ms. Faithfull — in “Why’d Ya Do It,” a hybrid of séance, lecture and concert.

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She describes herself as a “raconteuse of bizarre tales, clamberer over ruins.”

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In an essay at The Daily Beast, Ira Madison III also addressed the issue, writing that “Coppola has been our foremost raconteuse of Caucasian stories, from ‘Marie Antoinette’ to ‘Lost in Translation’ to the aforementioned ‘Virgin Suicides.’

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If she had a vocation, it was raconteuse: the guest on the late-night TV couch who spouted pithy wit, almost always about her very public private life.

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This spring, Debbie Harry sang at the Café Carlyle, proving herself to be an entertaining chanteuse and raconteuse.

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