Expert: Behzad - 9/16/2009

Question
Greetings Behzad,

I can't find ویراستار in my dictionary anywhere – I wonder if it’s a neologism of some kind, a recently-coined word. I suspect it means something like “editor” but I wanted to be sure.

Is anything known about the etymology of ویراستار? Is the final –taar the same as –daar, i.e. from the verb دارم - داشتن “to have”? Is there a word ویراس at all?

And a linked question: you have, I believe, many words ending in –daar. The main one I can think of at the moment is ریشدار. Presumably this is made up of ریش plus دار, so the meaning is straightforward: having a beard i.e. bearded. However, when does it happen (if indeed it happens at all) that –daar becomes –taar? In a way I would have expected rishtaar rather than rishdaar, but maybe I've got the wrong end of the stick.

All the best, and many thanks,

Simon

PS Am I right in thinking that some circles in today's Iran would frown on such a word as ویراستار and prefer a word from Arabic? What word might they use instead of ویراستار?

Answer
Hello Simon,

As you guessed correctly it is a new word meaning editor.
Its origin is ویراستن which is a variant of پیراستن meaning to polish something up or modify something (especially by trimming or removing unnecessary parts).
Please notice that ویراستار= ویراست (بن ماضی) + ار, but the word ویراس does not exist. Sometimes ار as a suffix makes a noun with a meaning close to an infinitive. For example, دیدار means the act of دیدن. Sometimes, ار makes a noun which is the performer of an action as in ویراستار.
The suffix in ریشدار is دار originated from داشتن which is different from the case of ویراستار, and, I guess it always remain دار although I am not sure.
The Arabic substitute for ویراستار that I can remember is مصحح (mosahheh), but I do not know if some people purposefully insist on using words with Arabic origin. However, some of the neologisms are not accepted by the majority of the people as well as the others. I think, ویراستار is now a part of language and used normally and commonly.

Best regards,
Behzad

PS. editor-in-chief = سردبیر