enthusiast
/ɪnˈθjuːzɪast
/ /ɛnˈθjuːzɪast/noun
1A person who is very interested in a particular activity or subject: a sports car enthusiast...
- Unless you are an enthusiast for such things, these annual events don't have a ‘wow’ factor.
- He had been a long-standing enthusiast for home rule at a time when it merely served to reinforce his marginal status in the party.
- A breathless enthusiast for the wired world, he writes well enough to take happy Luddites such as me along with him.
Synonyms
fan, fanatic, devotee, aficionado, addict, lover, admirer, supporter, follower;
expert, wizard, connoisseur, authority, pundit, cognoscente, one of the cognoscenti, savant
informal buff, freak, nut, fiend, maniac, ninja, ham, a great one for
North American informal maven, geek, jock, nerd
South African informal fundi
2 archaic, derogatory A person of intense and visionary Christian views.
Origin
Early 17th century (denoting a person believing that he or she is divinely inspired): from French enthousiaste or ecclesiastical Latin enthusiastes 'member of a heretical sect', from Greek enthousiastēs 'person inspired by a god', from the adjective enthous (see enthusiasm).