artista

Forms

artista m or f by sense (masculine plural artisti, feminine plural artiste)^[1] Old Italian also had the masculine form Old Italian artisto.^[2] Dialect forms include Bolognese artesta and Corsican ertistu.^[3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Medieval Latin artista (“master of an art”), a learned word built on Latin ars (“skill; craft; art”) with the agent suffix -ista.^[4][5][6][7] The Medieval Latin word is recorded in Italy in the chronicle of Salimbene of Parma (1281–1288), shortly before the first Italian use.^[4][3] DEI notes that it first named a master of an art and then a man of letters.^[7] Sabatini–Coletti, Gabrielli and Wiktionary analyse the word simply as from Italian arte + -ista.^[8][9][1]

According to the LEI the Italian word then spread to the western Romance languages: French artiste “craftsmen” (about 1405), Old Occitan artiste (1402), Catalan artista (1605), Spanish artista (1495) and Portuguese artista (16th century).^[3] DIFIT records the French word from 1395 and leaves open whether it came from Medieval Latin or from Italian.^[10] The English word artist came through French.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first Italian record is in Dante's Commedia (before 1321), with two senses: a craftsman, and one who practises one of the liberal arts.^[4][2] In the Paradiso the soul of Cacciaguida shows Dante “what an artist he was among the singers of heaven” (qual era tra i cantor del cielo artista).^[11][12]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian the word named a poet or writer, a learned man trained in the seven liberal arts, a teacher, and a craftsman; an artista di panni or di lana was a cloth dyer.^[2] Boccaccio asks what philosopher or artist could have shown such cunning, and Michelangelo's sonnet begins Non ha l'ottimo artista alcun concetto, “The best of artists has no idea” that a block of marble does not already contain.^[11][12] The old sense “craftsman” survived into the 20th century and is now marked as archaic.^[6][3]

DIFIT dates the stage sense, a performer in public shows, to 1508, and the modern sense, one who practises the fine arts as a profession, to 1798.^[10] Extended senses followed: a person of refined taste and sensibility, and anyone who does a job with exceptional skill.^[6][13] The artista di strada, the street performer, entered the GDLI's supplement in 2009, with an example from 2005.^[11]

Timeline

• 1281–1288 – Salimbene of Parma uses Medieval Latin artista.^[4][3]
• Before 1321 – Dante uses artista for a craftsman and for a master of the liberal arts.^[4][2]
• Before 1337 – Artista is recorded for one who has studied the seven liberal arts.^[10]
• 1395 – French artiste is first recorded.^[10]
• 1495 – Spanish artista appears in Nebrija.^[3]
• 1508 – Artista is recorded for a performer in public shows.^[10]
• 1798 – The sense “one who practises the fine arts professionally” is recorded.^[10]
• 2005 – Artista di strada “street performer” is quoted in the press.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. artist: one who practises an art professionally or habitually, especially one who excels in it, such as a painter, sculptor, musician or poet: Nel museo ci sono le opere di molti artisti del Seicento.^[6][13][14]
2. A performer in the world of entertainment: an actor, singer or circus artist: All'ingresso degli artisti aspettava una piccola folla.^[6][13][8]
3. (figurative) One who does a job with exceptional skill: Quel pasticciere è un vero artista.^[6][13][15]
4. (figurative) A person of refined taste and sensibility: Si vede che ha un temperamento da artista..^[6][13][14]
5. (archaic) A craftsman.^[6][8][15]
6. (history) Facoltà degli artisti: in medieval universities, the faculty of the liberal arts.^[13]

Word family

• artistico
• artistucolo
• artistone
• antiartista

Related words

• arte
• artigiano
• Latin ars
• French artiste

Usage notes

Artista is masculine or feminine according to the person: un artista, un'artista; the plural is artisti for men or mixed groups and artiste for women.^[1][8] An artista di strada is a street performer: a musician, mime, painter or juggler who performs in the street.^[6][13][15]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
3. ^ a b c d e f Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 3, 1413
4. ^ a b c d e Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
5. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
7. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 310
8. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
9. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
10. ^ a b c d e f g Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
11. ^ a b c d Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
12. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
13. ^ a b c d e f g Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
14. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
15. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli