# art

Pronunciation: US say "ART" /ɑɹt/; UK say "AHT" /ɑːt/

## Noun

1. Works produced through creative skill, such as paintings, sculptures, or drawings.
   - Simple: Things people make to be looked at, like paintings or sculptures.
   - _The gallery displays art by local painters and sculptors._
   - _Collectors paid millions for the art sold at the auction._
2. The creation of works that express ideas or feelings or have beauty, such as painting, sculpture, music, dance or literature, or any one field of such work, including its practice and study.
   - Simple: Making paintings, music, dance or other things that show feelings or ideas or are beautiful, or any one such activity.
   - _Ballet is a demanding art that combines movement and storytelling._
   - _She has studied several arts, from sculpture to poetry._
3. A skill gained through study, practice or experience, especially one that depends on judgment and feel rather than fixed rules, often contrasted with science.
   - Simple: A special skill you learn by doing, which needs good judgment and not only rules.
   - _The art of persuasion can be sharpened through years of practice._
   - _Diplomacy is an art mastered only through long observation and study._
5. The aesthetic value or beauty found in a creative work.
   - Simple: The beauty or value something has as a creative work.
   - _The plot is thin, but there's real art in how the film uses light and color._
   - _There is genuine art in the careful balance of the composition._
4. In the plural, the branches of learning that study human culture, including languages, literature and history, considered apart from the sciences.
   - Simple: School and college subjects about people and culture, like languages, history and literature, not the sciences.
   - _She earned a Bachelor of Arts in comparative literature before going to law school._
   - _Budget cuts hit the arts faculty hardest, and the history and language departments both lost staff._

## Verb

6. Second-person singular simple present indicative of be. *(archaic)* — second-person singular simple present indicative of be
   - Simple: Second-person singular present of be. An old form of are, used only with thou, as in thou art.
   - _Thou art the fairest in all the land._
   - _Thou art late, my lord, and the gates are shut._

## Noun

7. Cunning contrivance and scheming used to manipulate others. *(dated)*
   - Simple: Sly tricks and scheming used to fool or control other people.
   - _She saw through the art with which he flattered the old man._
   - _His rise to power owed more to art than to merit._

## Origin

**Meanings 1–5, 7** — It comes from Middle English "art," borrowed from Old French "art," which came from Latin "ars" (accusative "artem"), meaning "art." It partly displaced the native Old English word "cræft," which gives us Modern English "craft."
**Meaning 6** — This comes from Middle English "art," from Old English "eart," the second-person singular present form of "wesan" (to be). Its deeper origin is uncertain; one proposal traces it to Proto-Germanic "*art" (originally "thou becamest") and a Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to lift, rise, set in motion." It is related to Icelandic "ert" and Old English "earon" (are).

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/art (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).