Poetaster

Word of the Day for Thursday, July 18, 2013

Poetaster \POH-it-as-ter\, noun:

an inferior poet; a writer of indifferent verse.

Someone who writes verses but does not produce this essence is called a "poetaster." A poetaster is a fraudulent poet, a non-poet.
-- Frederick Busch, Letters to a Fiction Writer, 2000

Rotten as a poetaster or a second-rate musician reduced to beggary.
-- Carmen Boullosa, Cleopatra Dismounts, 2003

Poetaster entered English in the late 1500s. It is a combination of the word poet and the rarely used Latin suffix -aster which denotes something that imperfectly resembles or mimics the true thing.

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com