entrepreneur

noun

Etymology: Borrowed from French entrepreneur (“one who undertakes or manages”), from Middle French entrepreneur, from entreprendre (“to undertake”) + -eur.

1. A person who sets up a business; generally, a person who owns and manages a business and assumes its financial risks.

   “Every rail company worth its salt wanted to connect with London. Interestingly, it was largely that way around - provincial entrepreneurs wanting to connect with the capital, rather than London capitalists seeking to spread outwards.”

2. A person who organizes concerts, plays, or other entertainments; the manager of a theatre or similar venue; an impresario.
3. A person who serves as an intermediary; a middleman; a go-between.

   “Chicago, it was, by way of compensation, beginning to take on the cosmopolitan cast of culture that it has worn ever since, as entrepreneur between the Old World and the New.”

4. A person who manages an artist or performer; an agent.