Etymologically
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artiste

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /aʁ.tist/[1]
  • IPA (Quebec): /aʁ.t͡sɪst/[1]

Forms

artiste m or f by sense (plural artistes)[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Medieval Latin artista or from Italian artista,[2][3][4][5] the first derived from Latin ars (“art, skill”) (genitive “artis”), the second from arte (see art).[2][6] In Medieval Latin an “artista” was a student or master of the liberal arts, and the word was also used by alchemists.[7][2]

English artiste (1804 as a French word, naturalised by 1819) is a reborrowing beside English artist.[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Christine de Pizan (1395–1405) writes Homme de mestier, que les clers appellent artistes, for craftsmen, and says of Charles V that he estoit droit artiste et appris es sciences.[2][9][10]

Semantic evolution

As a learned word it was close to artisan, with the value of Latin artifex; it also meant a student of the liberal arts (1404, until the 18th century) and an architect (1578).[2] In the 16th century it was an adjective, “made with skill” (Montaigne's un feu artiste).[2][10] Once artisan came into use in the mid-16th century the two words parted, and by the 18th century the relation was a hierarchy: Trévoux (1711) calls an artiste one whose craft suppose de l'intelligence — the clockmaker, not the shoemaker.[2] It also named a chemist (1662), a doctor (1787) and a veterinary surgeon (artiste vétérinaire, 1785).[2]

Bloch and Wartburg date the modern sense to 1656.[7] In the Revolutionary period actors, cooks and hairdressers all called themselves artistes, a vogue mocked in the early 19th century (D'Hautel, 1808), and surviving in artiste capillaire (1864).[2][11] The sense “actor, performer” (1753) remains usual;[2] from the beginning of the 19th century, with Romanticism, the word was tied to the fine arts and to art as an aesthetic ideal, apart from artisan.[2] The adjective artistique dates from 1808, and familiar salut, l'artiste ! from about 1919.[7][2]

Timeline

  • 1395 – Artiste “craftsman”, in Christine de Pizan.[3]
  • 1404 – A student of the liberal arts.[2]
  • 1554 – The adjective “made with art”.[2]
  • 1656 – The modern sense.[7]
  • 1753 – “Actor”.[2]
  • 1785 – Artiste vétérinaire.[2]
  • 1808 – Artistique.[7]
  • 1819 – English artiste.[8]

Meanings

Noun

  1. An artist, one who practises a fine art; a creator of works of art: artiste peintre.[4][6]
  2. A performer: actor, singer, musician: l'entrée des artistes.[4][9]
  3. One who has artistic feeling or does something with art, (ironic) artiste capillaire, culinaire.[4][9]
  4. (familiar) A joker, character: salut, l'artiste !.[2]
  5. (dated) A Bohemian, nonconformist.[6]

Adjective

  1. Artistic, having a feeling for art: un milieu artiste, écriture artiste (the Goncourts' style).[6][10]

Word family

  • artistique
  • artistique
  • artistiquement
  • artistement
  • art
  • artisan
  • Latin ars
  • English artist
  • English artiste

References

  1. ^ a b c 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 Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  3. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
  4. ^ a b c d Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  5. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 25, 346a
  6. ^ a b c d Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)
  7. ^ a b c d e Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
  8. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  9. ^ a b c Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
  10. ^ a b c Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
  11. ^ Quemada, Bernard, ed. (1959–2006), Datations et documents lexicographiques (Base historique du vocabulaire français, BHVF), Paris: Klincksieck / CNRS / Champion; ATILF