artist

Forms

artist m (plural artiști)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French artiste, one of the French neologisms of the early 19th century.^[2][3][4][1] DELR adds Italian artista and the learned Latin artista as further models, and DEX names French and Latin.^[5][6] Scriban gives French and Italian.^[7] The French word came in around 1400 from the Medieval Latin noun or from Italian, the Latin noun being formed on Latin ars (“art, skill”).^[8] Wiktionary notes that it can also be analysed in Romanian as artă with the suffix -ist.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR and Tiktin both date the first record to 1829, in the sense “creator of art”.^[5][3] MDA2 cites Negruzzi's works in the edition of 1872, a later record.^[2] The feminine artistă follows in 1840, in Poenaru, Aaron and Hill's vocabulary.^[5]

Semantic evolution

Besides the painter, sculptor or musician, the word came to mean an actor, artist dramatic, which Scriban calls a title thought more honourable than actor.^[7][2] Artist liric is a trained singer.^[9][2] By extension it is anyone very skilled in a trade: CADE's example says someone is a true artist at arranging things.^[10][6] The communist period had the honorary titles artist emerit and artist al poporului, now out of use.^[6][9] Tiktin also records an adjectival use, “artistic”.^[3]

Timeline

• 1829 – first record, “creator of art”.^[5][3]
• c. 1832 – the adjective artistic, from French artistique.^[5]
• 1840 – the feminine artistă.^[5]
• 1870 – Costinescu's artist veterinar “veterinary surgeon”.^[11]
• 1885 – pseudoartist in Maiorescu.^[5]
• 1901–1902 – antiartist in Duiliu Zamfirescu.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. An artist: a gifted person who works creatively in one of the arts.^[6][2][1]
2. An actor; with liric, a trained singer.^[6][2]
3. (by extension) someone who shows great talent in their trade.^[6][12]
4. (no longer used) artist al poporului “People's Artist”, the highest honorary title given to an artist.^[6]

Word family

• artistă
• pseudoartist
• antiartist

Related words

• artă
• artistic
• French artiste

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 105
3. ^ a b c d Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. artíst
4. ^ Academia Română (1913–1949), Dicționarul limbii române (DA), ed. Sextil Pușcariu, tom I (A–B, C, D–De) and tom II (F–I, J–Lojniță), București: Socec / Universul / Monitorul Oficial și Imprimeriile Statului; page scans at cflr-scans.solirom.ro, p. s.v. artist
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2011–), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române (DELR), vol. I: A–B (2011), vol. II: C (2015–2018), București: Editura Academiei Române; continued online at delr.lingv.ro, p. s.v. artíst
6. ^ a b c d e f g DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 65
7. ^ a b Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 126
8. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ a b Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. artist
10. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. artist
11. ^ Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 1, 71
12. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. artist