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Definition of Dilettante
1. Noun. An amateur who engages in an activity without serious intentions and who pretends to have knowledge.
2. Adjective. Showing frivolous or superficial interest; amateurish. "His dilettantish efforts at painting"
Similar to: Superficial
Derivative terms: Sciolism
Definition of Dilettante
1. n. 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.
Definition of Dilettante
1. Noun. An amateur, someone who dabbles in a field out of casual interest rather than as a profession or serious interest. ¹
2. Noun. A person with a general but superficial interest in any art or a branch of knowledge. (Sometimes derogatory.) ¹
3. Adjective. Pertaining to or like a dilettante. ¹
¹ Source: wiktionary.com
Definition of Dilettante
1. [n -TANTES or -TANTI]
Lexicographical Neighbors of Dilettante
Literary usage of Dilettante
Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:
1. The London Magazine by John Scott, John Taylor (1826)
"ON Dilettante PHYSIC. THIS is an age of universal illumination, ... Nothing can
be so proper as, on the other hand, dilettante physic ; because the ..."
2. The Diplomatic Relations of England with the Quadruple Alliance, 1815-1830 by Louis Calvert, Myrna M. Boyce, Paul Padgette (1918)
"... Past—The Strong Appeal of the Old Method—Expressing Emotion and Repressing
Emotion—Gordon Craig, the Passionate Dilettante—" Unattached " Cleverness. ..."
3. Musical Education by Albert Lavignac (1902)
"THE Dilettante As for the amateur composer, we will not devote a special paragraph
... They may be defined as the dilettante type,* those who delight in the ..."
4. Lyrics of Lowly Life by Paul Laurence Dunbar, William Dean Howells (1897)
"THE Dilettante: A MODERN TYPE, HE scribbles some in prose and verse, And now and
then he prints it ; He paints a little, — gathers some Of Nature's gold and ..."
5. The New American Cyclopaedia: A Popular Dictionary of General Knowledge by George Ripley, Charles Anderson Dana (1859)
"Dilettante (pi. dilettanti), an Italian term, naturalized in France, England,
... The term dilettante designated originally a lover of Italian vocal music, ..."
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