cineast

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The Word of the Day for June 22 is:

cineast   \SIN-ee-ast\   noun
     : a devotee of motion pictures; also : moviemaker 

Example sentence:
     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 "cine" and "-aste" to create "cineaste," 
a word for a filmmaker or movie director. "Cine" in French is just another word 
for "cinema," and "-aste" is a suffix that appears in words like "gymnaste" and 
"enthousiaste." "Cineaste" underwent several changes once it was established in 
English. Some writers anglicized its spelling, shortening "-aste" to "-ast" 
(although "cineaste" and "cineaste" are also still used). Others began to use 
"cineast" to mean "film buff," and that's the sense that is most common today.  




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