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dilettantism

/ˌdɪlətˈtæntɪzəm/

Casual, superficial involvement in a subject or art

From Italian, from Latin dilettante (An admirer or casual practitioner of an art or subject).

noun
dilettante
Latin
dēlectāre
To allure, delight, charm, or please; frequentative of delicere.
Italian
dilettare
To delight.
Italian
dilettante
Present participle meaning a person who delights in or cultivates an art.
English
dilettante
From 1733, an admirer or casual practitioner of art, literature, or science.
-ism
Greek/Latin suffix
-ism
A suffix forming names of doctrines, practices, or conditions.
English
ism
By the 1670s, also an independent word for a distinctive doctrine or practice, often disparagingly.
Combined
dilettante + -ism → dilettantism
The noun names the state or quality of being a dilettante.
English
dilettantism
Recorded from 1809 for casual or superficial involvement in an art, subject, or activity; also spelled dilettanteism.
Modern English
dilettantism
“

Picture an eighteenth-century Italian announcing that he is a dilettante: originally, this was not an insult but a charming declaration that he delighted in music or painting without needing to make a living from it. The word came through Italian dilettante from Latin dēlectāre, “to delight,” the same pleasure-centered family that gives English delight and delicious. When English adopted it in 1733, a dilettante was simply a devoted amateur; by the late eighteenth century, however, professionals began using the label for someone who sampled everything and mastered little. Add the suffix -ism, which English had already begun using independently in the 1670s for doctrines and practices, and dilettantism appeared by 1809. The word therefore preserves a small social quarrel: is broad curiosity admirable, or is it merely expertise viewed from a safe distance?

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