Where does “artful” come from?
Artful comes from English art, derived from Latin ars meaning skill or craft, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European h₂er- meaning to fit or join together.
artful (English): Cunning; tending toward indirect dealings;...
Definitions
- Cunning; tending toward indirect dealings;...
Ancestry of “artful”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | English | Art | 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 |
| 2 | Middle English | art | Second-person singular present indicative form of... |
| 3 | Old French | art | art (skill; practice; method) |
| 4 | Latin | artem | accusative singular of ars; first-person singular... |
| 5 | Latin | ars | art; skill, craft, handicraft, trade, power |
| 6 | Proto-Italic | artis | — |
| 7 | Proto-Indo-European | h₂értis | fitting |
| 8 | Proto-Indo-European | h₂er- | to fit, to fix, to put together |