'These Nameless Dilettanti'

Both amateur and professional ought to be words of commendation, and the distinction should not always be rooted in money. The former has been claimed by snobbery and is applied with contempt. The OED confirms that the word has come to be used “disparagingly” to describe a “dabbler, or superficial student or worker.” I prefer the word’s etymological sense – doing something out of love for it. In Chap. 4 of Robert Browning (1903), G.K. Chesterton writes of how Browning’s poems on painting – “Fra Lippo Lippi,” “Andrea del Sarto,” “Pictor Ignotus” – “do not merely deal with painting; they smell of paint.” Browning was no painter but the art for him was not “a valley of bones: to him it is a field of crops continually growing in a busy and exciting silence.” In short, Browning, when it came to painting, was an amateur:   

“The word amateur has come by the thousand oddities of language to convey an idea of tepidity; whereas the word itself has the meaning of passion. Nor is this peculiarity confined to the mere form of the word; the actual characteristic of these nameless dilettanti is a genuine fire and reality. A man must love a thing very much if he not only practises it without any hope of fame or money, but even practises it without any hope of doing it well. Such a man must love the toils of the work more than any other man can love the rewards of it.”

There’s nothing wrong with being paid for what one loves, so long as there is nothing wrong with doing it without financial recompense, out of love. Professional originally referred to a profession or vow made when one entered a holy order. Centuries later it became associated with payment, yet another “oddity of language.”  In Chap. 2 of his Autobiography, Chesterton again plays with the words. By profession, his father was a real estate agent, though he had considered becoming an artist when he was young. However, as hobbies he enjoyed painting, taking photographs and making stained-glass windows. His son writes: “On the whole, I am glad that he was never a professional artist. It might have stood in his way of becoming an amateur. It might have spoilt his career — his private career.”

As with amateur, professional has mutated over the centuries. Today, the OED recognizes a newer meaning as an adjective: “has or displays the skill, knowledge, experience, standards, or expertise of a professional; competent, efficient.” We say, “He’s a pro,” meaning he gets the job done. You can rely on him. The ideal is to be a professional amateur, or vice versa.