art

Forms

art f/m (oblique plural arz, artz; nominative singular arz, artz)^[1]

• arte, arx^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin ars (“skill, craft”), from its accusative artem.^[1][4][5][6] The Latin noun was feminine, and in French the gender wavered between masculine and feminine until the 16th century;^[5][7] Körting explains the masculine by the word's consonant ending.^[8] The DHLF, after Ernout and Meillet, relates ars to armus (“shoulder”) and artus (“joint”) and to Ancient Greek ἀραρίσκω (ararískō, “to fit together”),^[6] and Etymonline traces it to Proto-Indo-European *ar- (“to fit together”).^[9] The Romance cognates include Italian arte, Old Occitan art, Spanish arte and Portuguese arte.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is the Vie de saint Léger, about 1000, which has the word once.^[10][11][12] Godefroy files that line under the sense "means by which something is achieved, a way of doing a thing by rule".^[13]

Semantic evolution

In Chrétien de Troyes the word names a liberal art, precepts or rules (his art d'amors after Ovid), skill, secret knowledge and trickery: Or ne porroit lengue ne boche De nul home, tant seüst d'art, Deviser "no tongue or mouth of any man, however learned, could describe".^[3] Tobler–Lommatzsch add "trade, craft" and arz de Tolete "magic arts", and the phrase male art "wickedness".^[14] In Middle French art also meant learning in general, above all in the seven liberal arts taught in the faculties of arts,^[15] and it continues as French art.^[1]

Timeline

• c. 1000 – art in the Vie de saint Léger.^[10][16]
• c. 1100 – arz in the Chanson de Roland.^[17][18]
• 1113–1119 – the first Anglo-Norman record the AND cites.^[2]
• c. 1170 – a liberal art, in Chrétien de Troyes's Erec et Enide.^[3]
• c. 1176 – l'art d'amors in the prologue of Cligès.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. one of the liberal arts, a branch of learning.^[3][19]
2. precepts, rules (of a discipline).^[3]
3. skill, adroitness, craftsmanship.^[3][2]
4. a craft, trade.^[14][19]
5. secret knowledge, magic.^[3][14]
6. ruse, artifice, deceit.^[3][2]

Anglo-Norman

The AND first cites the noun from 1113–1119, with the spellings arte, ars, artz and arx, and records the senses "method, technique", "practice, habit", "learning, science", "deceit" and "sorcery", and the phrase par art "skilfully" or "deceitfully".^[2] The MED derives Middle English art from Old French art, plural arz, and the Latin accusative,^[20] and Etymonline dates English art "skill as a result of learning or practice" to the early 13th century.^[9]

Descendants

• Middle French art (→ French art)^[1]
• Norman art^[1]
• Walloon årt^[1]
• Middle English art (borrowed; → English art, Scots airt)^[1]

Usage notes

Tobler–Lommatzsch, the DÉCT, the AND and the DMF all head the noun art.^{[7][3][2][15]} The same spelling is the third person singular of ardre "to burn",^[21] and an Anglo-Norman form of hart "withy, rope".^[22]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–), p. s.v. art
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Dictionnaire électronique de Chrétien de Troyes (DÉCT), LFA / Université d'Ottawa – ATILF, CNRS / Université de Lorraine (2014), p. s.v. art
4. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 25:344
5. ^ a b Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France, p. 78
6. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. art
7. ^ a b Tobler, Adolf; Lommatzsch, Erhard (1925–2002), Altfranzösisches Wörterbuch, 11 vols., Berlin / Wiesbaden / Stuttgart: Weidmann / Steiner, p. 1:551
8. ^ a b Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh, p. 892
9. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
10. ^ a b Rainsford, Thomas (2025), Old Gallo-Romance Corpus, github (the earliest Gallo-Romance texts, lemmatised; texts by siglum), p. SLégerA
11. ^ Rainsford, Thomas, CorMétAF: lemmatised extracts of Old and Middle French verse and prose (990–1500), github (texts by siglum), p. SLégerA
12. ^ Möhren, Frankwalt, Dictionnaire étymologique de l'ancien français (DEAF): Complément bibliographique, electronic version (DEAFBiblEl), Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften, alma.hadw-bw.de/deafbibl (texts by siglum, with their dates), p. SLégerA
13. ^ Godefroy, Frédéric (1881–1902), Dictionnaire de l'ancienne langue française et de tous ses dialectes du IXe au XVe siècle, 10 vols., Paris: Vieweg / Bouillon, p. 8:192
14. ^ a b c Tobler, Adolf; Lommatzsch, Erhard (1925–2002), Altfranzösisches Wörterbuch, 11 vols., Berlin / Wiesbaden / Stuttgart: Weidmann / Steiner, p. 1:552
15. ^ a b Dictionnaire du Moyen Français, version 2015 (DMF 2015), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/dmf, p. s.v. art
16. ^ UD Old French PROFITEROLE and UD Middle French PROFITEROLE treebanks, Universal Dependencies (from the SRCMF and the Base de français médiéval; texts by DEAF siglum), p. SLégerA
17. ^ Stein, Achim; Kunstmann, Pierre; Gleßgen, Martin-D., eds., Nouveau Corpus d'Amsterdam, version 4 (lemmatised corpus of Old French texts, after A. Dees), Universität Stuttgart, github.com/michaniets/NCA (texts by DEAF siglum), p. RolS
18. ^ Baldinger, Kurt; Möhren, Frankwalt; Städtler, Thomas, eds. (1971–2021), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'ancien français (DEAF), Heidelberg: Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften; DEAFél / DEAFpré, deaf-server.adw.uni-heidelberg.de, p. s.v. art
19. ^ a b Greimas, Algirdas Julien (1979), Dictionnaire de l'ancien français jusqu'au milieu du XIVe siècle, 2nd ed., Paris: Larousse (printing of 1988), p. s.v. art
20. ^ Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
21. ^ Dictionnaire électronique de Chrétien de Troyes (DÉCT), LFA / Université d'Ottawa – ATILF, CNRS / Université de Lorraine (2014), p. s.v. ardre
22. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–), p. s.v. hart