Meaning of DILETTANTE
| Pronunciation: | | `dili'tantee
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 WordNet Dictionary |
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| | Definition: | |
- [n] an amateur who engages in an activity without serious intentions and who pretends to have knowledge
- [adj] showing frivolous or superficial interest; amateurish; "his dilettantish efforts at painting"
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| | Synonyms: | | dabbler, dilettanteish, dilettantish, sciolist, superficial |
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| | See Also: | | amateur | |
| Webster's 1913 Dictionary |
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| | Definition: | | \Dil`et*tan"te\, n.; pl. {Dilettanti}. [It., prop. p.
pr. of dillettare to take delight in, fr. L. delectare to
delight. See {Delight}, v. t.]
An admirer or lover of the fine arts; popularly, an amateur;
especially, one who follows an art or a branch of knowledge,
desultorily, or for amusement only.
The true poet is not an eccentric creature, not a mere
artist living only for art, not a dreamer or a dilettante,
sipping the nectar of existence, while he keeps aloof from
its deeper interests. --J. C.
Shairp.
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| Thesaurus Terms |
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| | Related Terms: | | abecedarian, admirer, aesthete, aficionado, amateur, arbiter, arbiter elegantiarum, arbiter of taste, authority, bon vivant, booster, buff, cognoscente, collector, connaisseur, connoisseur, coquet, critic, criticaster, dabbler, dabbling, dabster, dallier, devotee, dilettantish, dunce, epicure, epicurean, expert, fan, fancier, flirt, follower, fool, freak, fribble, good judge, gourmand, gourmet, grammaticaster, greenhorn, greeny, groupie, half scholar, idolater, idolizer, ignoramus, illiterate, illiterati, jackleg, judge, know-nothing, lowbrow, maven, middlebrow, no scholar, nonprofessional, nut, philologaster, philosophaster, piddler, potterer, puddinghead, pundit, putterer, refined palate, rooter, savant, scholar, sciolist, smatterer, specialist, Sunday painter, technical expert, technician, tenderfoot, trifler, tyro, unaccomplished, unfinished, ungifted, unintelligentsia, unskilled, virtuoso, votary, worshiper |
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