narrator
(næˈreɪtə(r))
[a. L. narrātor, agent-n. f. narrāre to narrate. Cf. F. narrateur (1552).]
a. One who narrates.
| 1611 Cotgr., Narrateur, a Narrator, relater, declarer. 1625 Bp. R. Montagu App. Cæsar 5 Hee is but a Narrator of other mens opinions. 1725 Watts Logic (ed. 2) 268 Consider whether the Narrator be honest and faithful, as well as skilful. 1797 Mrs. Radcliffe Italian ix, ‘I tell you’, replied the narrator [etc.]. 1803 W. Taylor in Ann. Rev. I. 301 Of such a narrator the very hostility is not oppressive. 1874 L. Stephen Hours in Library (1892) I. i. 43 He was simply a narrator of plain facts. |
b. One who speaks a commentary in a broadcast or a film; hence also, a character who relates part of the plot of a play to the audience.
| 1941 B.B.C. Gloss. Broadcasting Terms 20 Narrator, person whose role is to deliver, in either his own or an assumed character, narrative passages in a radio-dramatic programme. 1948 E. Lindgren Art of Film vi. 112 There may be..portions [of film]..in which we see the action of the story, but hear the words of the narrator, which thus become..a form of commentary. 1955 Radio Times 22 Apr. 25/1 Bob Hope compères the..Annual Awards... Narrator, Leslie Mitchell. 1960 Times 3 Oct. 16/2 For Ahlsen clearly employs the ‘narrator’ technique in order to allow his protagonist not only to act out the dramatic scenes..but also to speak his thoughts aloud in monologue form if not actually fire them into the auditorium. 1961 Times 23 May 15/1 It is the incidentals of Brecht's method—the narrator-characters half in, half outside the action..which have..proved capable of easy assimilation. 1973 D. Gifford Brit. Film Catal. 1895–1970 15 Credits..Associate Producer.. Director..Narrator [etc.]. |