artifice

Etymology

It is borrowed from Middle French artifice (“skill, cunning; work of art”), the form also in Anglo-Norman,^[2][3][4][5] and directly borrowed from Latin artificium (“artistry, craft, trade; cunning, trick”),^[2] from artifex (“craftsman, master of an art”),^[2][4][3][5] from ars (“art”) and faciō (“to make, do”),^[4][3][6][7] from Proto-Indo-European *dhe- (“to set, put”).^[4][7] In Anglo-Norman the word is recorded from 1212, for craftsmanship, a trade and a contrivance.^[2][8] An older English form artificie, directly from the Latin, is recorded from before 1425.^[2][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The action of a craftsman, the making of something by skill, and also human skill as opposed to nature: 1526, in the Grete Herball.^[2][3] Barnhart dates the sense to 1534 and Etymonline to the 1530s,^[5][4] while the Shorter Oxford and the Oxford Dictionary of English put the word in late Middle English.^[9][10]

Semantic evolution

The Latin word already covered both craftsmanship and cunning, but English records the neutral senses first.^[2] The 16th century added technical skill (1540) and a style of workmanship (1597, in Morley), and in 1600 the word was used for a thing made by skill.^[2] The now usual sense of cunning or trickery is recorded from 1618, and a clever stratagem or trick from 1620;^[2] these dates are earlier than Barnhart's 1656 and Etymonline's 1650s.^[5][4][2] Weekley placed the word's decline beside that of artful, craft and cunning.^[11] By 1755 Johnson put "trick; fraud; stratagem" first and "art; trade" second.^[12] The old sense of workmanship is recorded as late as 1896,^[2] and human skill as opposed to nature is still current, as the Shorter Oxford shows with a quotation from Gombrich.^[2][9] A verb, to make or contrive by artifice, appears before 1652, in Brome.^[2]

Timeline

• 1526 – the making of something by skill (obsolete by 1896); human skill as opposed to nature.^[2]
• 1540 – technical skill, ingenuity.^[2]
• 1597 – a style of workmanship.^[2]
• 1600 – a thing made by skill, a device.^[2]
• 1618 – cunning, trickery.^[2]
• 1620 – a clever stratagem, a trick.^[2]
• before 1652 – verb, to make or contrive by artifice.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A clever stratagem or trick, especially one meant to deceive: The contract was an artifice to hide the debt.^{[13][3][7][2]}
2. Cunning or deception: a politician skilled in artifice.^{[13][3][7][2]}
3. Skill or ingenuity.^[13][3][2]
4. Human skill as opposed to nature.^[2][9]
5. (rare) A skilfully made device.^[13][2]
6. (obsolete, 1526–1896) The making of something by craft; workmanship.^[2][3][13]

Verb

1. To make or contrive by skill.^[2]

Related words

• artificial
• art
• artifact
• artificer
• artisan
• fact

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
9. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
12. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
13. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins