Websters Dictionary 1828
This online edition has been carefully prepared in a special format. All words, definitions, and examples have been preserved, but the explanations of word origins have been left out to make the data easier to use in a digital format. We have also removed Webster's long technical introduction for the same reason.
Scripture references have been converted to a modern format, and many abbreviations have been expanded to make them easier to understand.
Oration
ORA'TION, noun [Latin oratio, from oro, to pray, to utter.]
1. A speech or discourse composed according to the rules of oratory, and spoken in public. Orations may be reduced to three kinds; demonstrative, deliberative, and judicial.
2. In modern usage, an oration differs from a sermon, from an argument at the bar, and from a speech before a deliberative assembly. The word is now applied chiefly to discourses pronounced on special occasions, as a funeral oration an oration on some anniversary, etc. and to academic declamations.
3. A harangue; a public speech or address.
First Occurrence in the Bible(KJV): Acts 12:21