art French · revision 17078

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=inherited|attested=c. 1100, Chanson de Roland (males arz)|origins=la ars}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * IPA: /aʁ/^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''art''' ''m'' (plural arts)^(Wiktionary)

+ Old French ''art'', plural ''arz'', ''ars''.^(TLFi)^(Littré 1873) The word was feminine, as in Latin, or masculine until the 16th century; the masculine prevailed in the 17th.^(Grand Robert 2005)^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)^(Littré 1873)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[inh|la|ars|t=skill; craft; method; cunning]] (accusative “artem”).^(DHLF 1992)^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)^(Wiktionary)^(FEW|25, 344b) The TLFi calls it a borrowing from Latin.^(TLFi) Rey relates “ars” to [[la|armus|t=shoulder]] and [[la|artus|t=joint]] and to [[grc|ἀραρίσκω|tr=ararískō|t=to fit together]], from an Indo-European root of fitting and order.^(DHLF 1992)^(Petit Robert 2007)

+

+ Compare [[it|arte]], [[es|arte]] and [[pt|arte]], Latin “ars” passed into all the Romance languages except Romanian.^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)^(Petit Robert 2007)^(DHLF 1992)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ In the ''Chanson de Roland'' (about 1100) a pagan king is ''de mult males arz'', “skilled in evil arts”, magic.^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)^(Littré 1873)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ Benoît de Sainte-Maure (1165–70) uses it for the seven liberal arts of medieval study and for skill in achieving something; from this came “cunning, artifice” (12th–17th century).^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992) In the early 13th century it meant a craft or trade, a sense taken over in the 16th century by [[artisan]], Montaigne (1580) opposes ''l'art'' to nature.^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)

+

+ The aesthetic sense, the creation of works of beauty, is from Trévoux (1740), and the ''Beaux-Arts'' from 1752; these are now the main senses, and gave ''œuvre d'art'' and ''art moderne''.^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992) Older senses survive in ''l'art de'' + infinitive, ''les règles de l'art'' and ''avoir l'art et la manière''.^(DHLF 1992)^(Petit Robert 2007)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * c. 1100 – ''Males arz'', ''Chanson de Roland''.^(TLFi)

+ * 1165–70 – The liberal arts, Benoît de Sainte-Maure.^(TLFi)

+ * early 13th century – A craft or trade.^(TLFi)

+ * 1580 – Art as opposed to nature, Montaigne.^(TLFi)

+ * 1740 – The creation of beauty, Trévoux.^(TLFi)

+ * 1752 – ''Beaux Arts'', Lacombe.^(TLFi)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # [[m|en|art]], artistic creation; the arts: ''une œuvre d'art'', ''l'art moderne'', ''les beaux-arts''.^(Petit Robert 2007)^(Wiktionary)

+ # A skill, knack: ''l'art de plaire'', ''avoir l'art de''.^(Petit Robert 2007)^(GLLF 1989)

+ # The body of methods of an activity: ''l'art culinaire'', ''l'art militaire'', ''les règles de l'art''.^(TLFi)^(Petit Robert 2007)

+ # ''Arts et métiers'': arts and crafts.^(Petit Robert 2007)

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[artiste]]

+ * [[artisan]]

+ * [[artifice]]

+ * [[artificiel]]

+ * [[inerte]]

+ * [[la|ars]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}