As an individual with a multitude of interests, I was taken aback by the fact that I had never delved into the origins of the term amateur until now. However, I was quite content with what I discovered. The word was adopted in 1784 from French, where it denoted “one who loves” (eventually evolving to mean “one who loves a hobby” in English). This can be traced back to the Latin word amator, which also signified “one who loves”, and the verb amare, meaning “to love”. The influence of amare can be seen in various words such as amorous, amity, enamor, and paramour. Its roots can be traced back to the Proto-Italic root ama, which meant “to take”, and the Proto-Indo-European hemh, meaning “to seize” (indicating that love “seizes” or “captures” individuals). According to Google NGram Viewer, the usage of the term amateur peaked in 1937, and search interest is reportedly highest in Kentucky according to Google Trends.
