noun
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a person filled with or motivated by enthusiasm; fanatic
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archaic a religious visionary, esp one whose zeal for religion is extravagant or unbalanced
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of enthusiast
First recorded in 1600–10; from Greek enthousiastḗs “inspired person, possessed person,” from enthousí(a) “possession by a god” ( see enthusiasm) + -astēs -ast ( def. ) (variant of -istēs -ist after i )
Explanation
When you're an enthusiast, you're all jazzed up about a person or cause. A sports enthusiast is someone who is really passionate and excited about sports. Enthusiast comes from the Greek enthousiastēs, meaning "person inspired by a god." While it doesn't retain those same religious connotations today, an enthusiast is someone who is inspired by a cause or person. A candidate running for office will have a group of enthusiasts working doggedly on his campaign. Often your mother is your biggest enthusiast or supporter. Non-profit organizations are always looking for enthusiasts who can make donations and become patrons of their organization.
Vocabulary lists containing enthusiast
This Week In Culture: November 9–15, 2019
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
“Everywhere that cheese is made has native flora and fauna which will impact the cheese, both in the milk and in the aging,” Chris Osborne, cheesemaker at Blackberry Farm, told Wine Enthusiast in 2020.
From Salon • Oct. 3, 2024
Wine Enthusiast magazine spotlighted Drury in its 40 Under 40 Tastemaker series.
From Seattle Times • Nov. 4, 2022
And what about those wines from emerging regions that will no longer be reviewed in Wine Enthusiast?
From Washington Post • Oct. 6, 2022
Carlson and his co-authors trained their program on a decade’s worth of professional reviews—about 125,000 total—scraped from the magazine Wine Enthusiast.
From Scientific American • Apr. 29, 2022
Sent the replies off to the Enthusiast, who returns me some of the Patent Remedy in a bottle, "to be taken as directed," but no money!
From Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 105, September 2nd, 1893 by Various
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
