art

art

art¹ [ärt]

n.

[ME < OFr arte < L ars (gen. artis), art < IE base * ar-, to join, fit together > ARM¹, ARM², ARTICULATE, RATIO, L artus, joint]

1. human ability to make things; creativity of man as distinguished from the world of nature

2. skill; craftsmanship

3. any specific skill or its application [the art of making friends]

4. any craft, trade, or profession, or its principles [the cobbler's art, the physician's art]

5. creative work or its principles; a making or doing of things that display form, beauty, and unusual perception: art includes painting, sculpture, architecture, music, literature, drama, the dance, etc.: see also FINE ART

6. any branch of creative work, esp. painting, drawing, or work in any other graphic or plastic medium

7. products of creative work; paintings, statues, etc.

8. pictorial and decorative material accompanying the text in a newspaper, magazine, or advertising layout

9.

a) Archaic learning

b) a branch of learning

c) [pl.] the liberal arts (literature, music, philosophy, etc.) as distinguished from the sciences

10. artful behavior; cunning

11. sly or cunning trick; wile usually used in pl.

adj.

of or for works of art or artists [art gallery, art colony]

SYN.- ART¹, the word of widest application in this group, denotes in its broadest sense merely the ability to make something or to execute a plan; SKILL implies expertness or great proficiency in doing something; ARTIFICE implies skill used as a means of trickery or deception; CRAFT implies ingenuity in execution, sometimes even suggesting trickery or deception; in another sense, CRAFT is distinguished from art in its application to a lesser skill involving little or no creative thought

art² [ärt]

vi.

archaic 2d pers. sing., pres. indic., of BE: used with thou

art³

abbrev.

1. article

2. artificial