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Discussion Forum—A Way with Words, a fun radio show and podcast about language

A Way with Words, a radio show and podcast about language and linguistics.

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Brenda
1
2009/01/07 - 1:48pm

What is the word meaning someone who knows a little about alot but not an expert in any? Websters added this word maybe ten years ago. Brenda

Guest
2
2009/01/07 - 8:47pm

Do you mean dilettante?  Or is it something more recently coined and cutesy?

Guest
3
2009/01/08 - 9:28am

"dilettante" (the word, not the screen name) is older than 10 years.

Martha Barnette
San Diego, CA
820 Posts
(Offline)
4
2009/01/08 - 11:03am

>>>>> What is the word meaning someone who knows a little about alot but not an expert in any?

"Journalist"?

Guest
5
2009/01/08 - 2:05pm

Ha! I shared an office with an just-slightly-ex Wall Street Journal reporter twenty odd years ago, and that's when I grasped the true and utter sense of "a mile wide and an inch deep"!

Martha Barnette
San Diego, CA
820 Posts
(Offline)
6
2009/01/09 - 7:31am

Heh. Well, I was trained as a journo myself, which is why the definition rang true! 🙂

But did we ever get an answer to Brenda's question? Brenda, was it some kind of neologism?

Guest
7
2009/01/11 - 1:19pm

I know that there is such a word; I've seen it defined.  But I'll be darned if I can think of it now.  I'll look for it, tho.

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