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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
Meryl Cates, New York Times, 20 Jan. 2025
The movie perks up when Michael Keaton and Eva Green arrive as a ruthless impresario and his sensitive acrobat girlfriend, and Burton envisions his obvious Disneyland analog as a capitalist hellscape.
—Josh Bell, Vulture, 20 Dec. 2024
In Arzner’s film, Judy’s dream of being a ballerina comes true thanks to a helpful secretary (Katharine Alexander) and a smitten ballet impresario (Ralph Bellamy) who can offer her a chance to dance with a real ballet company.
—Marya E. Gates, IndieWire, 13 Jan. 2025
Showrunner Terence Winter stepped down from the position, allegedly over creative differences with series creator (and Yellowstone impresario) Taylor Sheridan.
—Sean T. Collins, Vulture, 15 Sep. 2024
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Cite this Entry
“Impresario.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/impresario. Accessed 16 Feb. 2025.
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impresario
noun
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