The word amateur has at least two connotations. In the first, more widely used manner, it means someone performing some task without pay, in contrast to a "professional" who would be paid for the same task. In this sense, labeling someone an "amateur" can have a negative connotation. For example, amateur athletes in sports such as baseball or football would not be regarded as having ability on par with professional athletes in those sports.
Where this can be interesting is in the case of the Olympic Games. Most Olympic events required that the athletes be amateurs, or non-professionals. To receive pay to perform the sport could have disqualified an athlete from an event, as in the case of Jim Thorpe. Such regulations are now nonexistent for all Olympic sports with the exception of boxing.
Also in the areas of computer programming and open source, as well as astronomy and ornithology, many amateurs make very meaningful contributions equivalent to or exceeding those of the professionals. To many, description as an amateur is losing its negative meaning, and actually carries a badge of honor.
The other, perhaps somewhat obsolescent usage, stems from the French form of the Latin root of the word meaning a "lover of". (See amateurism.) In this sense, retaining its French inflexion ("am-a-tEUR"), an amateur may be as competent as a paid professional, yet is motivated by a love or passion for the activity, like a connoisseur. In the 17th and 18th centuries virtuoso had similar connotations of passionate involvement.
See also hobby, particularly for Amateur Radio (also known as ham radio.)
By the beginning of the 20th cent., leaders of two major sports movements, the American intercollegiate athletic system and the Olympic Games (revived in 1896), had adopted amateurism, claiming it developed competitors who were morally superior to professionals.
As evidenced by the return of Thorpe's medals in 1982, amateurism by the 1990s was a concept of diminished importance and one more of technical than moral distinction.
The major organizations involved in the supervision of amateur athletics in the United States are the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), responsible for college and university sports, and the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU), responsible for most other areas of amateur competition.
Also, keep in mind that even though an athlete may be defined as an amateur by one organization, he or she may not be an amateur according to another.
A simplistic, yet useful definition is that amateur athletes participate in sports as an avocation while professional athletes are involved in sports as a vocation.
The concept of amateursports includes a range of activities from an individual casual weekend athlete to high school athletics to extensively organized intercollegiate or international competitions.
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