poetaster

Definition

An unskilled poet.

Etymology

Learned borrowing from New Latin poētaster. By surface analysis, poet + -aster.

Example Sentences

• "Where the personal feelings were not engaged, it was also an agreeable pastime to follow his destructive feats; see him annihilate a poetaster, or insinuate away the pretensions of a book-wright."
• "Innumerable poetasters of the early eighteenth century enjoyed fame in their day and some possessed talent; but the obscure and trivial style of the age from which they could not free themselves deprived them of any chance of enduring fame."