enthusiast
Pluralenthusiasts
- 1A person full of eager interest in or excitement about something.
As a lifelong railway enthusiast, she could name every locomotive on the line.
The festival drew enthusiasts from across the country.
Similaraficionado, freak, amateur
- 2A person who displays excessive or over-zealous religious fervor.
The bishop dismissed him as a dangerous enthusiast whose visions defied church doctrine.
Clergy of the period warned their congregations against enthusiasts who claimed private revelation.
Note
Here the word keeps its Greek charge: enthousiastḗs came from a verb meaning to be inspired or possessed by a god. In older writing it was a term of disapproval for zeal that claimed direct divine inspiration but seemed ungoverned by reason. When an older text calls someone an enthusiast, read it this way, not as the everyday eager fan. The word was a warning, not a compliment.
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Origin
From Ancient Greek enthousiastḗs, meaning an enthusiast or zealot, which comes from the verb enthousiázein, meaning to be inspired or possessed by a god, to be rapt or in ecstasy.