dilettantishly

English

Etymology

From dilettantish +‎ -ly.

Adverb

dilettantishly (comparative more dilettantishly, superlative most dilettantishly)

1. In a dilettantish manner.
   • 1907, George Saintsbury, “English and French—Periodical Literature—Criticism and Essay-Writing”, in The Later Nineteenth Century (Periods of European Literature; volume XII), Edinburgh, London: William Blackwood and Sons, pages 155–156:

     Horace Walpole dilettantishly, Sir Joshua Reynolds professionally, Blake prophetically, Gilpin in the manner (not the bad manner) of the gifted amateur, and devoting himself chiefly to “the picturesque” in nature, had occupied themselves with it in the eighteenth.

   • 1920 July, McClure’s, volume 52, number 6, page 52:

     He is so typical, so dilettanteishly radical.

   • 1922, Emory S. Bogardus, “Aristotle and Grecian Social Thought”, in A History of Social Thought, Los Angeles, Calif.: University of Southern California Press, page 103:

     Moreover, communism will lead to an unusual amount of quarrelling; those who work faithfully will feel aggrieved when they see that those who work dilettantishly receive and consume a full portion.

   • 1922, Paul Rosenfeld, “Musical Chronicle”, in The Dial, page 228:

     Superficially, of course, the art of this musician, so airy and dilettantishly brilliant, has little affair with the French State.

   • 1922 August 3, “Editorial”, in The Christian Century: An Undenominational Journal of Religion, volume XXXIX, number 31, Chicago, Ill., section “Religion and Public Health”, page 964, column 2:

     Certain ministers and church agencies have caught glimmers of these implications, and have entered this field,—timidly, daintily, dilettantishly.

   • 1986 June 18, Deborah Duffy, “A Passion for Storytelling Lures Professor to Biography”, in The Hartford Courant, volume CXLIX, number 169, page C4:

     “The danger is of complete superficiality in all directions, that you do nothing well, a lot of things . . . ‘dilettante-ishly,’ ” she said.

   • 2006, Bidoun: A Quarterly Forum for Middle Eastern Talent:

     However, he still seems to be casting around dilettanteishly for the right approach, working through art and theory trends in the meantime.