The word amateur originally meant one who works purely for love, not gain

Evidence

To most people now it means a dabbler, a bungler, a producer of something inferior. What a pity! For this word once described a person who could not be otherwise than happy, since he was doing something for the love of it; not for material gain, not even for fame or pre-eminence: he or she simply gave the head and heart, and rejoiced. — Freeman Tilden, Interpreting Our Heritage, 583

Categorization

• DEFINE: Tilden recovers the positive root meaning of ‘amateur’ (lover) against its modern dabbler connotation.
• CANDY: A funny-two-line level fact: amateur once meant doing something joyfully for love, not being bad at it.
• XREF: connects to: Commitment to memory is unnecessary when the interpreter loves the subject and the people. — Freeman Tilden, Interpreting Our Heritage, 532