enthusiast

[ en-thoo-zee-ast, -ist ]

/ ɛnˈθu ziˌæst, -ɪst /

a person who is filled with enthusiasm for some principle, pursuit, etc.; a person of ardent zeal: a sports enthusiast.

a religious visionary or fanatic.

Origin of enthusiast

1600–10; < Greek enthousiastḗs one inspired, equivalent to enthousi- (see enthusiasm) + -astēs -ast, variant of -istēs -ist after i

1 zealot, devotee, fan.

an·ti·en·thu·si·ast, noun

Alex Jones is a representative Second Amendment enthusiast in the same way that Leonid Brezhnev is an archetypal progressive.

Piers Morgan’s Gun-Control Freak Show Rounds Up the Crazies |Michael Moynihan |January 11, 2013 |DAILY BEAST
Most of the writing was done by Lincoln enthusiast Jesse Weik, and the reception was mixed at best and downright hostile at worst.

The Ultimate Lincoln Reading List |Jimmy So |November 16, 2012 |DAILY BEAST
That was 30 years ago, when I was something of an enthusiast.

Washington, Colorado, and Weed |Michael Tomasky |November 7, 2012 |DAILY BEAST
Manzi, who founded a company that makes software expediting RFTs, is an enthusiast of this empirical approach, and rightly so.

David's Book Club: Uncontrolled |Kenneth Silber |May 12, 2012 |DAILY BEAST

One Miku enthusiast might compose an original song for her using Vocaloid, for example, and then upload it for others to hear.

Hatsune Miku, Japan’s Hologram Pop Idol |Melissa Leon |April 18, 2012 |DAILY BEAST
Yet none but an enthusiast or fanatic could condemn it as iniquitous.

The Conspiracy of Pontiac and the Indian War after the Conquest of Canada |Francis Parkman
She was an enthusiast, a dreamer, passionately 315 sincere, passionately pitiful.

Christopher Hibbault, Roadmaker |Marguerite Bryant
Ada listened, and her cheek glowed with animation, for she was an enthusiast in the cause of the Greeks.

The Pirate of the Mediterranean |W.H.G. Kingston
Garces, like most of his kind, was an enthusiast on the subject of saving the souls of the natives.

The Romance of the Colorado River |Frederick S. Dellenbaugh
An enthusiast on radio, Jack had developed a number of new appliances.

The Radio Boys Rescue the Lost Alaska Expedition |Gerald Breckenridge

enthusiast

/ (ɪnˈθjuːzɪˌæst) /

a person filled with or motivated by enthusiasm; fanatic

archaic a religious visionary, esp one whose zeal for religion is extravagant or unbalanced