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An amateur who engages in an activity without serious intentions and who pretends to have knowledge
Answer for the clue "An amateur who engages in an activity without serious intentions and who pretends to have knowledge ", 8 letters:
sciolist
Word definitions for sciolist in dictionaries
Wiktionary
Word definitions in Wiktionary
n. One who exhibits only superficial knowledge; a self-proclaimed expert with little real understanding.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
Word definitions in Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
1610s, "smatterer, pretender to knowledge," from Late Latin sciolus "one who knows a little," diminutive of scius "knowing," from scire "to know" (see science ) + -ist . Related: Sciolistic .
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Word definitions in The Collaborative International Dictionary
Sciolist \Sci"o*list\, n. [L. sciolus. See Sciolous .] One who knows many things superficially; a pretender to science; a smatterer. These passages in that book were enough to humble the presumption of our modern sciolists, if their pride were not as great ...
WordNet
Word definitions in WordNet
n. an amateur who engages in an activity without serious intentions and who pretends to have knowledge [syn: dabbler , dilettante ]
Usage examples of sciolist.
He was not just a sciolist, Sam one who has but scraped the surface only of a field of knowledge but he was a a half-scholar no, almost a charlatan.
The pedantic sciolist, prating of his clear explanations of the mysteries of life, is as far from feeling the truth of the case as an ape, seated on the starry summit of the dome of night, chattering with glee over the awful prospect of infinitude.
The smooth sciolist Stellato rallied his weak wits and uttered a cry of wonder at such flagitious heresy.
He is no sciolist himself, and he does not believe in merely superficial attainments in his pupils.
This may offend the sciolists of the age, but I must follow science where it leads, and cannot be arrested by those who mistake their darkness for light.
The contagion has affected not only our sciolists and our versifiers, but those whom, in the absence of a mightier race, we must be content to accept as the poets of our age.
The man is known the world over as a sciolist, a medicaster, a humbug, a hoaxster, a trepan, a—"