1. What is "rhetoric" and where did the term originate?

The term rhetoric originated in ancient greece used as a persuasive element

The art of effective or persuasive speaking or writing, especially the use of figures of speech and other compositional techniques.

This originated from the Middle eastern Rhetorik and the and the Anglo French Rhetorique, from the Greek Rhetorike which literally means the art of oratory. There are many origins of that word but these are a few