[a. Fr. amateur ad. L. amātor-em, n. of agent f. amāre to love.]
1. One who loves or is fond of; one who has a taste for anything.
1784. Europ. Mag., 268. The President will be left with his train of feeble Amateurs.
1791. Burke, App. Whigs, 20 (T.). Those who are the greatest amateurs, or even professors of revolutions.
1801. Miss Edgeworth, Irish Bulls, xiv. (1832), 266. The whole boxing corps and gentlemen amateurs crowded to behold the spectacle.
1817. Chalmers, Astron. Disc., i. (1852), 40. The amateurs of a superficial philosophy.
1863. Mrs. Atkinson, Tartar Steppes, 89. I am no amateur of these melons.
2. One who cultivates anything as a pastime, as distinguished from one who prosecutes it professionally; hence, sometimes used disparagingly, as = dabbler, or superficial student or worker.
c. 1803. Rees, Cycl., Amateur, in the Arts, is a foreign term introduced and now passing current amongst us, to denote a person understanding, and loving or practising the polite arts of painting, sculpture, or architecture, without any regard to pecuniary advantage.
1807. Edin. Rev., X. 461. It was not likely that an amateur should convict these astronomers of gross ignorance.
1827–39. De Quincey, Murder, Wks. 1862, IV. 15. Not amateurs, gentlemen, as we are, but professional men.
1882. Boy’s Own Paper, IV. 807. Our amateurs are improving, and the interval between them and the professionals is growing beautifully less.
b. Often prefixed (in apposition) to another designation, as amateur painter, amateur gardener.
1863. Burton, Bk. Hunter, 101. Amateur purchasers do not, in the long run, make a profit.
1866. Geo. Eliot, Felix Holt, 38. He’s a sort of amateur gentleman.
3. Hence attrib. almost adj. Done by amateurs. Cf. amateur gardener with amateur gardening.
1848. Mariotti, Italy, II. iii. 84. Not merely a subject for amateur discussion.
1849. Sir J. Stephen, Eccles. Biogr. (ed. 2), I. 442. The evening closed with amateur theatricals.
1862. Helps, Organiz. Daily Life, 64. The getting-up of an amateur play.
1882. St. Nicholas, II. 717. Amateur Newspapers.
1882. Boy’s Own Paper, IV. 415. Amateur running records.
