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."
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Case in point, Stephen Schwarzman, the billionaire impresario of Blackstone, the world’s largest private equity firm, just hosted a 200-person housewarming party at his $27 million mansion in Newport.—Letters To The Editor, The Mercury News, 9 Nov. 2024 In the late Eighties, Titus became a concert promoter and impresario, enlisting her myriad friends and collaborators for special concerts in low-key restaurants and clubs around New York City.—Jon Blistein, Rolling Stone, 14 Oct. 2024 The uplifting track — which encourages people to keep building their lives even through setbacks — was produced by the multifaceted impresario himself, and brought to life through LEGO animation.—Amber Corrine, VIBE.com, 24 Oct. 2024 With that same energy, American travelers, businessmen, and media impresarios have descended upon Cuba in the wake of U.S. President Barack Obama’s partial loosening of travel and trade restrictions.—Michael J. Bustamante, Foreign Affairs, 19 Aug. 2015 See all Example Sentences for impresario
Word History
Etymology
Italian, from impresa undertaking, from imprendere to undertake, from Vulgar Latin *imprehendere — more at emprise
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