Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun One who dabbles in an art or a field of knowledge.
- noun Archaic A lover of the fine arts.
- adjective Superficial; amateurish.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun An admirer or lover of the fine arts, science, or letters; an amateur; one who pursues an art or literature desultorily and for amusement: often used in a disparaging sense for a superficial and affected dabbler in literature or art.
- Relating to dilettantism; having the characteristics of dilettanti.
- To play the dilettante.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun 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.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun An
amateur , someone whodabbles in a field out of casual interest rather than as a profession or serious interest. - noun A person with a general but
superficial interest in any art or a branch ofknowledge . - adjective Pertaining to or like a dilettante.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun an amateur who engages in an activity without serious intentions and who pretends to have knowledge
- adjective showing frivolous or superficial interest; amateurish
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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The real generalist is sometimes known as a dilettante and needs an independent income.
The Volokh Conspiracy » Palin, Ignorance, and Stupidity Revisited 2009
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‘No, the word dilettante did not accord with that face, the expression of that face, those eyes ....’
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The word dilettante derives from the Italian dilettare, meaning to delight in.
21 DOG YEARS Mike Daisey 2002
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'No, the word dilettante did not accord with that face, the expression of that face, those eyes ....'
Dream Tales and Prose Poems Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev 1850
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He became a symbol, I believe, to Al Smith of the shallowness of the American people, a shallowness that had hurt him so badly in '28 and had now elected this fop, which dilettante, which is how he perceived FDR.
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Haddon Channing might have been described as a dilettante radical.
Love's Pilgrimage Upton Sinclair 1923
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Either he will become a dilettante, which is the French way, or he will take to drink and mystical nihilism, a career very popular in
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An eclectic essayist is necessarily a dilettante, which is not in itself a bad thing.
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Tena, my sense is this: That one piece of info was saved as "ammunition" because your voice is powerful - and they're trying to diminish it by making you out to be some kind of dilettante condescending wealthy lady whose words should be ignored.
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I have become "dilettante" literate in the difference, say, between Hayek and Keynes over the last 2 years or so.
The Case for Killing Textbook Macro, Arnold Kling | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty 2009
jennarenn commented on the word dilettante
A former favorite, dethroned by sparble.
July 18, 2007
koani commented on the word dilettante
"This class is called 'Finding Your Voice'. It's for serious writers, not emotionally stunted dilettantes!" - Ugly Betty
October 21, 2007
seanahan commented on the word dilettante
This seems to be used mostly as an insult these days.
October 22, 2007
kewpid commented on the word dilettante
And what an excellent insult!
October 22, 2007
jennarenn commented on the word dilettante
That makes me sad. It's such a pretty word for a dabbler.
October 22, 2007
chained_bear commented on the word dilettante
I think of it more like a "renaissance" person than a dabbler. I guess because "dabbler" also has a negative connotation.
October 22, 2007
sionnach commented on the word dilettante
Then there is that device, recommended by the Phrontistery guy, of just adding "aster" as a pejorative suffix to your noun of choice.
Examples: poetaster, criticaster, wordiecaster.
http://phrontistery.info/aster.html
October 22, 2007
uselessness commented on the word dilettante
I'm a fan of bastardaster, personally. Nothing like adding insult to... er, insult.
October 22, 2007
reesetee commented on the word dilettante
Hey, that has a nice ring to it!
October 22, 2007
BrainyBabe commented on the word dilettante
Their own careers being at the most dilettante affairs, they were free from such exigencies themselves.
-- ''Yashima, or, The Gorgeous West'' by R T Sherwood, 1931.
December 24, 2008
chevrion commented on the word dilettante
see heinrich zimmer's brilliant defense of dilettantism in what was the book's name....
April 27, 2009
rolig commented on the word dilettante
Etymologically, this means "one who delights." A nice concept, I think. In this time of ubiquitous professionalization and ultra-specialization, we need more dilletantes to delight us.
April 28, 2009