After learning a bit about the Enron debacle, I got to wondering just what the above word actually means. To them it seemed to mean, "executioner." To me it means one who implements a business plan. I think I've missed some shade of meaning, though. What do YOU think?

One definition of executive in the OED Online is "Pertaining to execution; having the function of executing or carrying into practical effect." An executioner was one who performed, or executed official duties. Execute was a euphemism for the legal (and, sometimes, illegal) killing of someone and I imagine executioner became so identified with this type of execution that executive was invented to refer to those who carried out other official duties.

Rocky and his Friends aired in 1959, and renamed The Bullwinkle Show in 1961. It was created and produced by Jay Ward and co-produced by Bill Scott, using the Rocky and Bullwinkle characters created in the late 1940s by Ward's former partner, Alex Anderson. When the show became popular, reporters pestered the studio for staff biographies. Rather than tell them that the staff was a couple of ordinary men with mundane lives, the fictional Executive Producer Ponsonby Britt O.B.E. (Officer of the Order of the British Empire) was created, along with an impressive bio. One apocryphal story says that Ward created Ponsonby Britt, rather than name himself as Executive Producer, because he considered the success to be due to the hard work of everyone on the show.

That long-winded introduction helps explain the following quote from The Bullwinkle Show:

quote:

Bullwinkle: You just leave that to my pal. He's the brains of the outfit.
General: What does that make YOU?
Bullwinkle: What else? An executive.
-- Jay Ward

Tinman

This message has been edited. Last edited by: tinman,

Interesting question, Asa. Here is the etymology of "executive/executioner":

[ad. Fr. exécute-r = Pr. executar, Sp. ejecutar, It. esecutare, ad. med.L. exectre, f. L. ex(s)ect- ppl. stem of ex(s)equ lit. ‘to follow out’, f. ex- out + sequ to follow.]

I can see where they both have "to follow out" in their meaning.

Tinman, thanks for reminding us of Rocky and Bullwinkle!