To ensure that you get the most out of your vocabulary study, and make consistent progress in learning new words and how to use them, we recommend that you devote at least 15 minutes every day to vocabulary study. This study can happen during a lunch break at work, before a science lab at university, while you’re waiting for your child’s piano lesson to be over, or in the evening instead of watching that television rerun. If you make a commitment to daily study, you’ll soon see serious improvements in your vocabulary skills.

Someone who isn’t serious about a practice or pursuit is often referred to as a dilettante. They play around with a skill or art instead of putting in the effort to really learn it, usually just gaining a superficial knowledge of a topic. A dilettante often only stays with a course of study as long as it’s fun, and drops it once it becomes work. You can see this meaning of the word if you look at its etymology; the word comes from the Italian verb dilettare (“to delight”) and the earlier Latin root meaning the same thing, delectare (note the connection to the word delectable, meaning “delightful, delicious”).

While the word is often used in a derogatory sense, dilettante can also refer to someone who enjoys the arts in general, and who “delights in” following them. While these people are mostly still amateurs – that is, they are not the professional painters, musicians, or authors whose works they enjoy – they traditionally have provided much of the financial support required so that those artists could continue creating the art the dilettantes delight in. In England, the Dilettanti Society has been supporting artists since 1733.