aficionado

[uh-fish-yuh-nah-doh; Spanish ah-fee-thyaw-nah-th aw, ah-fee-syaw-]

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noun, plural a·fi·cio·na·dos [uh-fish-yuh-nah-dohz; Spanish ah-fee-thyaw-nah-th aws] /əˌfɪʃ yəˈnɑ doʊz; Spanish ɑˌfi θyɔˈnɑ ðɔs/.

an ardent devotee; fan, enthusiast.

Origin of aficionado

1835–45; < Spanish: literally, amateur, past participle in -ado -ate¹ of aficionar to engender affection, equivalent to afición affection¹ + -ar infinitive suffix

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for aficionado

enthusiast, devotee, connoisseur, fanatic

Examples from the Web for aficionado

Contemporary Examples of aficionado

So she was an aficionado of classical music, for soundtracks or otherwise?
‘Mozart in the Jungle’: Inside Amazon’s Brave New World of Sex, Drugs, and Classical Music
Kevin Fallon
December 23, 2014
For the aficionado or the neophyte, Comics is a useful overview of a richly creative period in a burgeoning art.
The Best Coffee Table Books of 2014
Robert Birnbaum
December 13, 2014
Each is expertly introduced by Michael Sims, an aficionado of the genre.
This Week’s Hot Reads, January 2, 2012
Josh Dzieza
January 4, 2012
Since, then I have become an aficionado of the publicly uttered F-word.
A Short History of the F-Bomb
John Leo
April 21, 2011
Shushannah Walshe came aboard as our Sarah Palin aficionado.
The Daily Beast Turns 2!
Tina Brown
October 5, 2010

Historical Examples of aficionado

Every man and boy in Spain is an aficionado, a bullfight "fan," a frantic bullfight "bug."
The Wolf Cub
Patrick Casey

British Dictionary definitions for aficionado

aficionado

noun plural -dos (-dəʊz, Spanish -ðos)

an ardent supporter or devoteea jazz aficionado

a devotee of bullfighting

Word Origin for aficionado

Spanish, from aficionar to arouse affection, from afición affection

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for aficionado

1845, from Spanish aficionado "amateur," specifically "devotee of bullfighting," literally "fond of," from afición "affection," from Latin affectionem (see affection). "Most sources derive this word from the Spanish verb aficionar but the verb does not appear in Spanish before 1555, and the word aficionado is recorded in the 1400's" [Barnhart]. In English, originally of devotees of bullfighting; in general use by 1882.