Once again I have been reading 'Fall of Giants' and I came across another word to which I didn't know the meaning. One of the characters was referring to the Russian Officers in the army under the Tsar's reign and referred to them as dilettantes. Now as I said previously I would normally be able to work out the meaning of the word based on the story line and events in the book and in this story the Russian army's leadership was looked on poorly, so I knew that the word would be derogatory towards the officers. However I was still not able to ascertain the exact meaning, so I again turned to my good friend Dictionary.com!
It turns out that a dilettante is "a person who takes up an art, activity or subject merely for amusement, especially in a desultory or superficial way". This did fit the description of the Russian military leadership of the Tsar throughout the book. It reminded my of a conversation that I had years ago, when I was at University, where a girl was arguing with me that there were too many words in the English language for people to learn and that we needed to restrict our vocabularies so that everyone could understand each other better. I argued the opposite, that we should all widen our vocabularies so that our communications with other would be more succinct and accurate. We agreed to disagree in the end, however the more that I learn new words, such as dilettante and learn their meaning the more I agree with my original argument. Even though I had to look this word up to determine the meaning, upon learning the definition, the author chose this word and it conveys exactly the right impression of these officers and I don't think any other word could fit the situation as perfectly. This further strengthens my thoughts that we should always be expanding our vocabularies not contracting them!
If you wish to look up the definition of dilettante or other words, check out Dictionary.com.
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