Vĭr/tu-ō’sō, n.

n.; Eng. pl. VIR/TU-Ō’SŌS; It. pl. VIR/TU-Ō’SĪ. [It. See VIRTUOUS.] One devoted to virtu; a person skilled in the fine arts, in antiquities, curiosities, and the like.

Virtuoso the Italians call a man who loves the noble arts, and is a critic in them. Dryden.

☞ “We can not wonder that Italy should fill our Great Exhibition with beautiful specimens of her skill in the arts, . . . but should only rivet her chains the more closely by the weak and ineffectual efforts which she makes to break them, when she can degrade the word virtuoso, or ‘the virtuous,’ to signify one accomplished in painting, music, and sculpture—such things as are the ornamental fringe of a nation’s life, but can never be made without loss of all manliness of character, its main texture and woof.” Trench.