Manager

How to spell manager

7 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce manager

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does manager mean?

1. nounA person responsible for controlling or administering an organisation, team, or part of a business.

Manager in a sentence

• The store manager approved the refund without any argument.

• Every complaint was escalated to the duty manager on the night shift.

Where does manager come from?

Language of origin: Italian

The word grows out of the verb 'manage', which English borrowed in the sixteenth century from the Italian maneggiare, meaning 'to handle or control', especially in the sense of handling a horse in the riding school. That Italian verb traces back to the Latin manus, meaning 'hand', so at its heart a manager is literally someone who takes a thing in hand. French influence (manege, the training of horses, and menager, to use carefully or to run a household) helped shape both the spelling and the broadening of sense toward running affairs and households. By adding the agent suffix '-er', meaning 'a person who does', English produced 'manager' for the one who directs or controls. The spelling trap lies in that hand-related root: the soft 'g' is followed by '-er', not '-or', and the word keeps the full 'manage' inside it rather than collapsing into the unrelated 'manger', the feeding trough.

How the word is built

• manage (from maneggiare: to handle, control)
• -er (agent suffix: one who does)