Word of the Day

: January 3, 2019

rapporteur

noun ra-por-TER

What It Means

: a person who gives reports (as at a meeting of a learned society)

rapporteur in Context

"The rapporteur was particularly scathing about bungled efforts to streamline the way welfare payments are made to individual recipients after delays in a shift to a new system … led thousands of people to fall into poverty." — Patrick Kingsley, The New York Times, 16 Nov. 2018

"It's appropriate that the U.N. special rapporteur devoted to adequate housing has visited encampments in Mexico City, Buenos Aires, Mumbai—and San Francisco, Oakland and Berkeley." — Rich Lowry, The National Review, 6 Nov. 2018

Did You Know?

Rapporteur was adopted into English in the 16th century and is a descendant of the Middle French verb rapporter, meaning "to bring back, report, or refer." Other descendants of rapporter in English include rapportage (a rare synonym of reportage, in the sense of "writing intended to give an account of observed or documented events") and rapport ("a harmonious relationship," as in "The young teacher had a good rapport with the students"). The words report, reporter, reportage, etc., are also distant relatives of rapporteur; all can ultimately be traced back to the Latin prefix re-, meaning "back, again, or against," and the Latin word portare, meaning "to carry."