Amateur

3 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  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.


     [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  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}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  104 Moby Thesaurus words for "amateur":
     Sunday painter, abecedarian, admirer, aesthete, aficionado,
     amateurish, apprentice, arbiter, arbiter elegantiarum,
     arbiter of taste, authority, avocational, beginner, bon vivant,
     booster, buff, bungler, bungling, clumsy, cognoscente, collector,
     connaisseur, connoisseur, coquet, crank, critic, criticaster,
     crude, dabbler, dabbling, dabster, dallier, devotee, dilettante,
     dilettantish, enthusiast, epicure, epicurean, expert, faddist, fan,
     fancier, flirt, follower, freak, fribble, good judge, gourmand,
     gourmet, grammaticaster, greenhorn, groupie, half scholar,
     half-assed, half-baked, half-cocked, idolater, idolizer, immature,
     inexpert, infatuate, inferior, judge, lay, layman, maven, mediocre,
     neophyte, nonprofessional, novice, nut, philologaster,
     philosophaster, piddler, potterer, probationer, pundit, putterer,
     refined palate, rooter, savant, scholar, sciolist, sciolistic,
     second-rate, shallow, smatterer, smattering, sophomoric,
     specialist, superficial, technical expert, technician, tinker,
     trifler, tyro, unpaid, unprofessional, unskilled, untrained,
     virtuoso, votary, worshiper, zealot