am·a·teur (m-tûr, -tr, --chr, -chr, -tyr)
n.
Abbr. a., A. A person who engages in an art, a science, a study, or an athletic activity as a pastime rather than as a profession.
Abbr. a., A. Sports An athlete who has never participated in competition for money.
One lacking the skill of a professional, as in an art.
adj.
Abbr. a., A. Of, relating to, or performed by an amateur.
Abbr. a., A. Made up of amateurs.
Not professional; unskillful.
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[French from Latin amtor, lover, from amre, to love.]
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ama·teur·ism n.
Synonyms: amateur, dabbler, dilettante, tyro.
The central meaning shared by these nouns is “one engaging in a pursuit but lacking professional skill”: a musician who is a gifted amateur, not a professional; a dabbler in the graphic arts; a sculptor but a mere dilettante; a tyro in the art of writing poetry.
Antonyms: professional
Word History: When Mrs. T.W. Atkinson remarked in her 1863 Recollections of the Tartar Steppes and their Inhabitants, “I am no amateur of these melons,” she used amateur in a sense unfamiliar to us. That sense, “a lover, an admirer,” is, however, clearly descended from the senses of the word's ultimate Latin source, amtor, “lover, devoted friend, devotee, enthusiastic pursuer of an objective,” and from its immediate Latin-derived French source, amateur, with a similar range of meanings. First recorded in English in 1784 with the sense in which Mrs. Atkinson used it, amateur is found in 1786 with a meaning more familiar to us, “a person who engages in an art, for example, as a pastime rather than as a profession,” a sense that had already developed in French. Given the limitations of doing something as an amateur, it is not surprising that the word is soon after recorded in the disparaging sense we still use to refer to someone who lacks professional skill or ease in performance.
amateur \Am`a*teur"\, n. [F., fr. L. amator lover, fr. amare to love.] A person attached to a particular pursuit, study, or science as to music or painting; esp. one who cultivates any study or art, from taste or attachment, without pursuing it professionally.
amateur adj 1: engaged in as a pastime; "an amateur painter"; "gained valuable experience in amateur theatricals"; "recreational golfers"; "reading matter that is both recreational and mentally stimulating"; "unpaid extras in the documentary" [syn: recreational, unpaid] 2: lacking professional skill or expertise; "a very amateurish job"; "inexpert but conscientious efforts"; "an unskilled painting" [syn: amateurish, inexpert, unskilled] n 1: someone who pursues a study or sport as a pastime 2: does not play for pay [ant: professional]
