art
noun
- abbreviation for visual or fine art
- what has emotional or aesthetic appeal
- the academic study of art
Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /ɑːt/ / /ɑɹt/ / [ɑːʔ] / /ət/
name
Etymology: Clipping.
- A diminutive of the male given name Arthur, from the Celtic languages.
noun
Etymology: Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₂er- Proto-Indo-European *h₂értis Proto-Italic *artis Latin ars Latin artemder. Old French artbor. Middle English art English art From Middle English art, from Old French art, from Latin artem, accusative of ars (“art”). Partly displaced native Old English cræft, whence Modern English craft. See also archaic English list (“art, craft, cunning, skill”).
- The conscious production or arrangement of sounds, colours, forms, movements, or other elements in a manner that affects the senses and emotions, usually specifically the production of the beautiful in a graphic or plastic medium.
“There is a debate as to whether graffiti is art or vandalism.”
“B.W. Wooster: If you ask me, art is responsible for most of the trouble in the world. R. Jeeves: An interesting theory, sir. Would you care to expatiate upon it? B.W. Wooster: As a matter of fact, no, Jeeves. The thought just occurred to me, as thoughts do. R. Jeeves: Very good, sir.”
- The creative and emotional expression of mental imagery, such as visual, auditory, social, etc.
- Skillful creative activity, usually with an aesthetic focus.
“She's mastered the art of programming.”
- The study and the product of these processes.
“He's at university to study art.”
- Aesthetic value.
“Her photographs are nice, but there's no art in them.”
- Artwork.
“Sotheby's regularly auctions art for millions.”
“art collection”
- A field or category of art, such as painting, sculpture, music, ballet, or literature.
“I'm a great supporter of the arts.”
- (often in dichotomy with science) A subject understood best through intuition rather than methodology.
“Economics is a messy discipline: too fluid to be a science, too rigorous to be an art. Perhaps it is fitting that economists’ most-used metric, gross domestic product (GDP), is a tangle too. GDP measures the total value of output in an economic territory. Its apparent simplicity explains why it is scrutinised down to tenths of a percentage point every month.”
- Skill that is attained by study, practice, or observation.
“A physician was immediately sent for; but on the first moment of beholding the corpse, he declared that Elvira's recovery was beyond the power of art.”
“The relation of science to art may be summed up in a brief expression: From Science comes Prevision: from Prevision comes Action.”
- Contrivance, scheming, manipulation.
“it was not art, Of wisdom and of justice when he spoke— When ’mid soft looks of pity, there would dart A glance as keen as is the lightning’s stroke When it doth rive the knots of some ancestral oak.”
“[...] and Mrs. Earnshaw undertook to keep her sister-in-law in due restraint, when she returned home employing art, not force—with force she would have found it impossible.”
verb
Etymology: From Middle English art, from Old English eart, second-person singular present indicative of wesan. Further etymology uncertain, see are. Cognate with Faroese ert and Icelandic ert.
- second-person singular simple present indicative of be: [you] are
“How great thou art!”