cineast

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 22, 2007 is: cineast • \SIN-ee-ast\  • noun : a devotee of motion pictures; also : moviemaker Examples: Ralph and Tory met -- and fell in love -- at a film festival, and within a year the two cineasts were engaged to be married. Did you know? "Cineast" is a French borrowing that made its American premiere in the mid-1920s. The French spliced together "ciné" and "-aste" to create "cinéaste," a word for a filmmaker or movie director. "Ciné" in French is just another word for "cinema," and "-aste" is a suffix that appears in words like "gymnaste" and "enthousiaste." "Cinéaste" underwent several changes once it was established in English. Some writers anglicized its spelling, shortening "-aste" to "-ast" (although "cineaste" and "cinéaste" are also still used). Others began to use "cineast" to mean "film buff," and that's the sense that is most common today. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.