ROME: 27th September '04 --  It will not take you long to discover that the word economer is not to be found in your English dictionaries.   It does not exist and never did.  Run a Google search and you will discover that it does not appear to be in use by too many other institutions besides Salesians (and a Russian site...anyone know Russian?), so, where does that leave us?

    Clearly enough economer intends to translate economo in Italian.  We know that Don Bosco employed that term from the outset, even before he met with the first group of young Salesians-to-be.  Already in the Regulations for the Oratory he had included an economo.  At that first meeting of 'Salesians' on 18th December 1859 he then appointed cleric Angelo Savio as economo.  Once there was the development of provinces, the term economo ispettoriale was introduced, and the man in Turin (at that stage) became economo generale.  But at the level of individual communities the term was not employed.  Instead the prefetto (prefect) carried those responsibilities in addition to others, until GC19 when that Chapter suggested that at House level there could be reasons for an economo who helps the vicario (vice rector).  

    But the issue at hand is that at a very early stage, certainly as early as the 1907 translation of the Constitutions, a translator coined the word economer for the role at World and Province level.  He could not have found it in a dictionary.  He may not even have been (at that stage) a native English speaker.  The evidence is against him borrowing it from another Religious Congregation founded in Italy since, amongst other things, Don Bosco chose his administrative terms rather purposefully to ensure they did not carry a 'religious' overtone, and the very modern evidence of Google tells us that even if it were the case, the term has not survived until 2004 in that Congregation, assuming that it still exists and that it uses the internet.  Why, then, might the translator have opted for economer?

    Probably for a simple linguistic reason.  -er is a productive suffix in English.  We can easily coin words with it.  Vacationer is a recent example of a neologism.  Unfortunately, however, economer cannot be found in lists of recent neologisms either!  We have it largely on our own.

    English is big enough and flexible enough to handle economer, of that there is no doubt.  The Salesians are a large enough organisation to be able to coin words and stay with the coinage.  Of that too there is no doubt.  We have, for better or for worse, the terms Economer General and Provincial Economer.  But that does not prevent one from suggesting that economer arrived in our midst unwittingly, and it does raise the question, still, regarding the most appropriate term at local level.  Bursar, administrator, are amongst some of the options we use. 

    Local businesses may be either confused or amused at the quaint employment of economer!  What do you think?