arte

Forms

arte f (plural artes)^[1] Houaiss records the spelling arrte in the 14th century.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin ars (“skill, craft, art”), recorded in Portuguese from the 13th century.^[2][3][4][1] Nascentes calls it a learned word, taken over from Latin by the written language.^[5]

The same Latin word is Galician arte, Spanish arte, Catalan art, Occitan art, French art and Italian arte.^[6][1] The REW notes that it became masculine in French, Occitan and Spanish and in some northern Italian dialects, and that Catalan, Occitan, Spanish and Portuguese use it for fishing gear.^[6]

The Latin noun goes back to *arti- and to Proto-Indo-European *h₂r̥tís (“the fitting”), a noun of the root *h₂er- (“to join”).^[7][1] De Vaan compares Ancient Greek ἄρτι (árti, “just, exactly”) and an Avestan word for “reward”.^[7] Vieira (1871) and Figueiredo (1899) still derived the Latin word from Greek, Vieira from the word for “virtue”, Figueiredo from a Greek verb; these are opinions of their time.^[8][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Machado's first record is a 13th-century cantiga of Alfonso X the Wise in the Cancioneiro da Biblioteca Nacional (no. 438): Ca non a mais na arte de fader / do que nos liuros, que el tem, iaz (the art in question is that of the books “he has”).^[4] The medieval texts use the word for a skill or manner of doing something, for a branch of learning and for craft in the bad sense, a trick or deceit.^[10][11][3]

Semantic evolution

The Crónica Troiana speaks of a man so learned that he knew all the seven arts, the liberal arts of the schools, and also uses the word for cunning workmanship and for deceit.^[10] Cunha's 13th-century senses are both “deceit, malice” and “the body of rules for doing something”, and Houaiss dates the sense “wile, ruse” to the 13th century too.^[3][2] The cantigas have Paio de maas artes “Paio of the evil arts”.^[11]

Bluteau (1712) defines art as a set of rules and a method for making useful works, distinguishes it from science, and lists the seven liberal arts.^[12] Morais (1789) gives “a collection of rules for doing something”, “artifice as opposed to natural simplicity” and “a book of practical precepts”.^[13] The sense of the fine arts, the conscious making of works aimed at beauty or the expression of the self, comes to the fore in the modern dictionaries.^[2][14] In Brazil the word also means a child's mischief, a sense Houaiss links to the old meaning “wile”.^[2] In Portugal arte is also a piece of fishing tackle, as in arte de xávega.^[2][15]

Timeline

• 13th century – a cantiga of Alfonso X has na arte de fader.^[4]
• 13th century – first records of the senses “deceit” and “set of rules”.^[3][2]
• 14th century – the spelling arrte.^[2]
• c. 1400 – the word in the Flos Sanctorum fragment of Santiago de Compostela (witness 1380–1425).^[16]
• 1569 – Cardoso's Portuguese–Latin dictionary renders Arte by Latin ars.^[17]
• 1611 – Barbosa lists arte mecanica and arte magica.^[18]
• 1712 – Bluteau names the seven liberal arts.^[12]
• 1789 – Morais defines it as a collection of rules for doing something.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. skill in carrying out a task, the ability to apply knowledge to a practical end.^[2][14][19]
2. The body of rules and techniques of an activity or craft: a arte da navegação.^[2][20][21]
3. A craft or trade, especially manual work.^[2][19]
4. A treatise setting out the rules of a discipline.^[2][21]
5. A special aptitude or knack.^[2]
6. (dated) Way of acting, manner; character, nature.^[2]
7. cunning, a wile or ruse.^[2][22]
8. (aesthetics) art, the making of works meant to express beauty or the artist's inner world; the fine arts, and the art of a period or place: a arte do Barroco.^[2][14]
9. (Brazil, informal) Mischief, a prank (also in the plural).^[2]
10. (fishing) A piece of fishing gear or net.^[2][15]
11. (printing, advertising) Artwork ready to be printed; the art department of an agency or newspaper.^[2][14]

Word family

• arteiro
• arteirice
• artista
• artístico

Related words

• artefacto
• Latin ars
• Galician arte

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h 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 Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. arte
3. ^ a b c d Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. arte
4. ^ a b c Machado, José Pedro (1987), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., 5 vols., Lisboa: Livros Horizonte, p. s.v. arte
5. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. arte
6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
7. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ Vieira, Frei Domingos (1871–1874), Grande Diccionario Portuguez ou Thesouro da lingua portugueza, 5 vols., Porto: Ernesto Chardron e Bartholomeu H. de Moraes, p. 1, 588
9. ^ Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. 135
10. ^ a b Instituto da Lingua Galega, Dicionario de dicionarios do galego medieval (DDGM), ed. Ernesto González Seoane, Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/ddgm, p. s.v. arte
11. ^ a b Universo Cantigas: Glosario da poesía medieval profana galego-portuguesa, A Coruña: Instituto da Lingua e Literatura (ILLA), Universidade da Coruña, https://www.universocantigas.gal, p. s.v. arte
12. ^ a b Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. arte
13. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1789), Diccionario da lingua portugueza composto pelo padre D. Rafael Bluteau, reformado, e accrescentado, 2 vols., Lisboa: Simão Thaddeo Ferreira, p. 1, 124
14. ^ a b c d Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. arte
15. ^ a b Instituto da Lingua Galega, Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués (TLPGP), Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/tesouro, p. s.v. arte
16. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. arte
17. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. arte
18. ^ Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. arte
19. ^ a b Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 968
20. ^ Academia das Ciências de Lisboa, Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, revised online edition (2023–) of the Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa Contemporânea (2001), https://dicionario.acad-ciencias.pt, p. s.v. arte
21. ^ a b Michaelis: Moderno Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, São Paulo: Melhoramentos (online as Michaelis Dicionário Brasileiro da Língua Portuguesa, https://michaelis.uol.com.br), p. s.v. arte
22. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. arte