enthusiast

[ en-thoo-zee-ast, -ist ]

/ ɛnˈθu ziˌæst, -ɪst /

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR enthusiast ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

a person who is filled with enthusiasm for some principle, pursuit, etc.; a person of ardent zeal: a sports enthusiast.

a religious visionary or fanatic.

Nearby words

Origin of enthusiast

1600–10; < Greek enthousiastḗs one inspired, equivalent to enthousi- (see enthusiasm) + -astēs -ast, variant of -istēs -ist after i

SYNONYMS FOR enthusiast

1. zealot, devotee, fan.

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR enthusiast ON THESAURUS.COM

Related formsan·ti·en·thu·si·ast, noun

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

Examples from the Web for enthusiast

Alex Jones is a representative Second Amendment enthusiast in the same way that Leonid Brezhnev is an archetypal progressive.
Piers Morgan’s Gun-Control Freak Show Rounds Up the Crazies|Michael Moynihan|January 11, 2013|DAILY BEAST
Most of the writing was done by Lincoln enthusiast Jesse Weik, and the reception was mixed at best and downright hostile at worst.
The Ultimate Lincoln Reading List|Jimmy So|November 16, 2012|DAILY BEAST
That was 30 years ago, when I was something of an enthusiast.
Washington, Colorado, and Weed|Michael Tomasky|November 7, 2012|DAILY BEAST
Manzi, who founded a company that makes software expediting RFTs, is an enthusiast of this empirical approach, and rightly so.
David's Book Club: Uncontrolled|Kenneth Silber|May 12, 2012|DAILY BEAST

One Miku enthusiast might compose an original song for her using Vocaloid, for example, and then upload it for others to hear.
Hatsune Miku, Japan’s Hologram Pop Idol|Melissa Leon|April 18, 2012|DAILY BEAST
Yet none but an enthusiast or fanatic could condemn it as iniquitous.
The Conspiracy of Pontiac and the Indian War after the Conquest of Canada|Francis Parkman
She was an enthusiast, a dreamer, passionately 315 sincere, passionately pitiful.
Christopher Hibbault, Roadmaker|Marguerite Bryant
Ada listened, and her cheek glowed with animation, for she was an enthusiast in the cause of the Greeks.
The Pirate of the Mediterranean|W.H.G. Kingston
Garces, like most of his kind, was an enthusiast on the subject of saving the souls of the natives.
The Romance of the Colorado River|Frederick S. Dellenbaugh
An enthusiast on radio, Jack had developed a number of new appliances.
The Radio Boys Rescue the Lost Alaska Expedition|Gerald Breckenridge

British Dictionary definitions for enthusiast

enthusiast

/ (ɪnˈθjuːzɪˌæst) /

noun

a person filled with or motivated by enthusiasm; fanatic

archaic a religious visionary, esp one whose zeal for religion is extravagant or unbalanced

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 enthusiast

enthusiast

1560s, pejorative, "one who believes himself possessed of divine revelations or special communication from God," from Greek enthousiastes "a person inspired," from enthousiazein (see enthusiasm). General sense (not always entirely pejorative) is from mid-18c.

enthusiast

noun

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Origin of enthusiast

Examples from the Web for enthusiast

enthusiast

noun

enthusiast