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amateur General Discussion
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Supreme Deity 9,147 posts Dave Wilton dwilton Supreme Deity 9,147 posts
Dave Wilton dwilton
For the love of...

https://www.wordorigins.org/big-list-entries/amateur
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ktschwarz ktschwarz Member 442 posts
ktschwarz ktschwarz
Quote:
The phrase rank amateur dates to at least 1873. The rank here means utter, absolute, of the worst kind. It first appears in a response to a reader who used the name rank amateur when writing to the British Journal of Photography.

Was there meant to be a quotation here? And does "used the name" mean as a pen-name, or what?

In any case, that beats the OED: they have rank amateur as a sub-entry of rank, adj. and adv., but not until 1884:
Quote:
1884 Syracuse (N.Y.) Standard 9 July 5/1 Law, a rank amateur, was sent in to catch.
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Syntinen Laulu Syntinen Laulu Veteran 1,887 posts
Syntinen Laulu Syntinen Laulu
It occurs to me for the first time what a close parallel amateur is to dilettante, which was introduced into English only a couple of decades earlier (the Society of Dilettanti was formed by a group of gentlemen who had all been on the Grand Tour and got a taste for Italian art and music). It too was used to mean a ‘mere dabbler’ as opposed to a professional, but has never achieved the general application that amateur has. Perhaps it was just too obviously foreign to become an everyday English word, and too closely associated with “all things poncy and artistic” to be congruous in any other field: it’s hard to imagine anyone seriously speaking of,say, dilettante rugby players or steeplechase riders.
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Dave Wilton dwilton Supreme Deity 9,147 posts
Dave Wilton dwilton

I've changed it to "used the pseudonym 'rank amateur.'" Thanks.

Dilettante is in the queue for tomorrow (23 May).
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