devotee

From devote +‎ -ee.

• IPA^(key): /ˌdɛvəˈtiː/

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

devotee (plural devotees)

1. An ardent enthusiast or admirer.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:enthusiast

   He was a devotee of Arnold Schwarzenegger.

   a devotee of classical music

   • 1908 January, John Muir, “Hetch Hetchy Valley”, in Sierra Club Bulletin‎^[1]:

     These temple destroyers, devotees of ravaging commercialism, seem to have a perfect contempt for Nature, and, instead of lifting their eyes to the God of the mountains, lift them to the Almighty Dollar.

2. (religion) A believer in a particular religion or god.

   devotees of Krishna

   devotees thronged the temple

   • 1913, Ernest Wilson Clement, A Handbook of Modern Japan, page 253:

     It has been said that a Japanese is a Shintōist in life and a Buddhist at death; and it is also true that he may be during life, at one and the same time, a devotee of both.

3. (slang) A person (almost exclusively a man) with a sexual attraction for people with physical disabilities, especially amputees.
   • 2004, Alison Kafer, “Inseparable: Gender and disability in the amputee-devotee community”, in Gendering Disability, page 108:

     The amputee-devotee community, consisting of women with amputations and the men sexually attracted to them, has been widely discussed within the disability community.

   • 2019, Ann Millett-Gallant, “Basilisk and the Representation of Physically Disabled Women in Film”, in Contemporary Art and Disability Studies:

     He becomes involved in a story about a community of wannabes and devotees, those who desire to be sexually intimate with disabled bodies, and meets Fiona, an art conservator and wannabe, or disabled pretender.

   • 2022, Thomas J. Gerschick, “The body, disability, and sexuality”, in Introducing the New Sexuality Studies: Original Essays, 4th edition:

     One of the paradoxical issues facing people with disabilities are "devotees": temporarily able-bodied people who are attracted to them because of their disabilities. […] Although some women with disabilities experience a positive effect, devotee forums and websites simultaneously sexually objectify women with disabilities.