I don't like the word "amateur" in this context - the semantic shift from its origins, and the baggage the word brings with it today makes it feel ... dismissiv

I don't like the word "amateur" in this context - the semantic shift from its origins, and the baggage the word brings with it today makes it feel ... dismissive, insulting; easy to discount and ignore. Looking at the word's synonyms reinforces that feeling[1]. "Hobbyist", on the other hand, feels both knowledgeable and at the same time homely, unthreatening, to me (see synonyms[2]). I don't like talking about my JS library on GitHub[3] as a "side project" (a phrase I think many people would interpret as: "something that may one day make some good money"). Rather, I think about it as one of my hobbies, something I do because the work both fascinates and pleases me, allows me to experiment and push boundaries of what's possible to do with a 2d canvas element in the browser without the need to meet the demands and constraints of employers, clients, time, etc. One of my other hobbies is writing poetry, which probably explains why I care too much about the meanings of words ... [1] - https://www.thesaurus.com/browse/amateur https://www.thesaurus.com/browse/amateur [2] - https://www.thesaurus.com/browse/hobbyist https://www.thesaurus.com/browse/hobbyist [3] - https://github.com/KaliedaRik/Scrawl-canvas https://github.com/KaliedaRik/Scrawl-canvas