[ad. Gr. ἐνθουσιστής, f. ἐνθουσιάζειν (see prec.). Cf. Fr. enthousiaste.]
† 1. One who is (really or seemingly) possessed by a god; one who is under the influence of prophetic frenzy. Also fig. Obs.
a. 1641. Bp. Mountagu, Acts & Mon. (1642), 162. So did those Enthusiasts amongst the Pagans deliver that … wherof they had no notice or apprehension.
1660. Stillingfl., Iren., I. v. (1662), 96. Their proper Enthusiasts, as the Sybils and the Pythian prophetess.
1677. W. Hubbard, Narrative, II. 48. The Indians … will not as yet return any of our Captive Friends, till God speak to the foresaid Enthusiasts [two sagamores claiming divine inspiration].
fig. 1647. Crashaw, Music’s Duel, Poems 90. She is placed Above herself—Music’s enthusiast!
1697. Dryden, Alexander’s Feast, 8/163. The sweet Enthusiast, from her Sacred Store, Enlarg’d the former narrow Bounds.
2. † a. transl. Lat. Enthusiasta: In Eccl. Hist. the designation of a sect of heretics of the fourth century, who pretended to special revelations. Obs. (the Lat. form is now used Hist.)
1637. Hieron, Wks., I. 82. There were in the elder times certaine heretiques called Enthusiasts, which … contemned the written word.
1639. F. Robarts, God’s Holy Ho., x. 74–5. The hæresie of the Messalini otherwise called Euchites and Enthusiastes.
b. gen. One who erroneously believes himself to be the recipient of special divine communications; in wider sense, one who holds extravagant and visionary religious opinions, or is characterized by ill-regulated fervor of religious emotion.
(Pagitt and other 17th-c. writers give enthusiasts as the actual name of a contemporary sect of Anabaptists; but this is probably a misapprehension.)
1609. Downam, Chr. Libertie, 27. If there be no freedom in our wills before we be called, then belike … we must look with the Enthusiasts for violent raptures.
1614. T. Adams, Devil’s Banquet, 328. Sottish Enthusiastes condemne all learning, all premeditation.
1665. Glanvill, Sceps. Sci., xiii. 72–3. Hence we may derive the Visions, Voyces, Revelations of the Enthusiast.
1746. Wesley, Princ. Methodist, 54. It is the believing those to be Miracles which are not, that constitutes an Enthusiast.
1806. Earl Westmorld., in Cobbett, Parl. Deb., VII. 230. Atheists, enthusiasts, jacobins, and such descriptions of persons.
1856. R. A. Vaughan, Mystics (ed. 4), II. X. i. 222. Yet this very Church of Rome incarcerated Molinos and Madame Guyon as dangerous enthusiasts.
3. One who is full of ‘enthusiasm’ (see ENTHUSIASM 3) for a cause or principle, or who enters with enthusiasm into a pursuit. Const. for, in, of, † to. Sometimes with unfavorable notion (transf. from 2 b.): A visionary, self-deluded person.
In present use the disparaging sense is more frequent than in the case of the related words ENTHUSIASM and ENTHUSIASTIC.
1764. Goldsmith, Hist. Eng., in Lett. (1772), II. 224. An enthusiast to the discipline of the field.
1769. Junius Lett., xxxv. 158. Hardly serious at first, he is now an enthusiast.
1790. Burke, Fr. Rev., 155. We shall believe those reformers to be then honest enthusiasts. Ibid. (1791), Th. Fr. Affairs, VII. 1826, 73–4. At present, the king … can send none but the enthusiasts of the system.
1793. Holcroft, trans. Lavater’s Physiog., viii. 52. Paracelsus … an astrological enthusiast.
1856. Sir B. Brodie, Psychol. Inq., I. i. 26. The energy and sincerity of enthusiasts is powerful in all ages.
1878. Morley, Carlyle, in Crit. Misc., Ser. I. 196. The arbitrary enthusiast for external order, like Frederick.
¶ Sometimes defined by the context in its etymological sense, in order to give a different complexion to its use in sense 2 or 3.
c. 1771. Fletcher, 4th Check, Wks. 1795, III. 59. The true Enthusiasts, those who are really inspired by the grace and love of God.
1879. R. H. Smith, in Sunday Mag., 507. He was an enthusiast in the best and truest sense of the word, for he was filled with the fulness of God.
4. attrib. or adj. That is an enthusiast; pertaining to an enthusiast, enthusiastic.
1681. Luttrell, Brief Rel. (1857), I. 88. The enthusiast maid of Hatfeild predicted the royall blood should be poysoned.
1742. Collins, Ode Pity, 29. Shall raise a wild enthusiast heat.
1862. Thornbury, Turner, II. 325. In a room that resembled the miserable Barry’s, he lived his enthusiast life.
