Speed over old city carrying prisoner who has a tale to tell? (9)
I believe the answer is:
raconteur
'speed over old city carrying prisoner who has a tale to tell?' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I don't see how they can define each other.
'speed over old city carrying prisoner' is the wordplay.
'speed' becomes 'rate' (the speed at which something happens).
'over' says to put letters next to each other.
'old city' becomes 'ur' (ancient city state).
'carrying' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'prisoner' becomes 'con' (abbreviation for 'convict').
'rate'+'ur'='rateur'
'rateur' enclosing 'con' is 'RACONTEUR'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for raconteur that I've seen before include "Teller of anecdote" , "source of anecdotes" , "He tells a story well" , "One relates" , "One can relate well" .)