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English borrowed impresario directly from Italian, whose noun impresa means "undertaking." A close relative is the English word emprise ("an adventurous, daring, or chivalric enterprise"), which, like impresario, traces back to the Latin verb prehendere, meaning "to seize." (That verb is also the source of apprehend, comprehend, and prehensile.) English speakers were impressed enough with impresario to borrow it in the 1700s, at first using it, as the Italians did, especially of opera company managers. It should be noted that, despite their apparent similarities, impress and impresario are not related. Impress is a descendant of the Latin pressare, a form of the verb premere, which means "to press."
Examples of impresario in a Sentence
Jon Greenberg, The Athletic, 25 Feb. 2025
Comedy stars of our age all gathered under the aegis of America’s greatest living impresario, my boss Lorne Michaels.
—Glenn Garner, Deadline, 19 Feb. 2025
Framed through a week behind the scenes in Studio 8H, the book follows Michaels’s rise from a 12-year-old summer camp impresario to the ruthless editor who takes his seat in a booth under the SNL audience bleachers during dress rehearsals, critiquing and cutting.
—Robert Sullivan, Vogue, 13 Feb. 2025
Set to take place at Greater Allen A.M.E. Cathedral in Jamaica, Queens, the service will honor the life and legacy of the influential Hip-Hop impresario.
—Amber Corrine, VIBE.com, 11 Feb. 2025
See All Example Sentences for impresario
Cite this Entry
“Impresario.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/impresario. Accessed 2 Mar. 2025.
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impresario
noun
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