intendant
/ɪnˈtɛnd(ə)nt
/noun
1The administrator of an opera house or theatre.Strauss devised his music for Enoch Arden to strengthen his Munich position with Ernst von Possart, intendant of the Court Theatre....
- Soon all but two of the East German theatre intendants will be gone, and only West German intendants will remain.
- In his memoirs, Drummond took McMaster to task for not making more of an impact with opera, given that he is ‘one of the most gifted opera intendants of our time’.
2chiefly historical A title given to a high-ranking official or administrator, especially in France, Spain, Portugal, or one of their colonies.Colonies were under the control of governors and officials called intendants without the interference of representative bodies....
- Moreover despite official regulations stipulating that intendants should not spend more than three years in one generality, or be sent to their own regions, these rules were regularly flouted.
- To centralize the administration, an intendant was put in charge of each province, and in 1717 the executive bureaus of the government were reorganized.
Derivatives
intendancy
/ noun ...- Louis XIV could do more than most of his contemporaries, particularly after the consolidation of the national intendancy in the 1690s had created a central government machinery entirely under its own control.
- By shining there they could legitimately hope to be appointed to one of the 34 intendancies, which were always filled from their ranks.
Origin
Mid 17th century: from French, from Latin intendere 'to direct' (see intend).
Rhymes
- connate
- connatural
- connaturally
- Connaught
- connect
- connectable
- connectedly
- connectedness
- Connecticut
- Connecticut River
- connecting rod
- connection
- connectional
- connectionism
- connectionist
- connective
- connective tissue
- connectivity
- connector
- connect time
- Connemara
- Connemara pony
- Conner, Dennis
- Connery, Sir Sean
- connexion