amateur

from WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006)
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: {amateur}, {recreational},
           {unpaid}]
    2: lacking professional skill or expertise; "a very amateurish
       job"; "inexpert but conscientious efforts"; "an unskilled
       painting" [syn: {amateurish}, {amateur}, {inexpert},
       {unskilled}]
    n 1: someone who pursues a study or sport as a pastime
    2: an athlete who does not play for pay [ant: {pro},
       {professional}]
    
from The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
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 Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0
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

    

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