The word was first recorded in English by 1300, from French, and before that, Latin. St. Katherine, a medieval account of a saint's life, used it to describe worshipping false gods.
French had already used the word by 1100, in religious contexts. Behind the French word lay a Latin word, built from a prefix meaning 'to, or toward', joined to a verb. In classical Latin, the full word could mean to plead or to salute.
Behind that Latin verb lay another verb meaning ‘to speak, or pray’. That verb traces to a Proto-Indo-European root, *os-, meaning ‘mouth’. The same root gave Old Norse its word for the mouth of a river.
ORAL and ORATOR share the same root, meaning 'mouth'. ORAL entered English in the 1620s, from Latin, describing anything spoken, or related to the mouth. ORATOR entered English in the late fourteenth century, describing a skilled, eloquent public speaker.
By the early seventeenth century the word was used to describe how cardinals gathered to elect their chosen pope. Around the same period, the word was briefly confused with an unrelated word meaning to decorate. By the late nineteenth century the word softened, now describing a level of love for something or someone.
