Friday word: Artifice

[med_cat]

artifice
noun ar·ti·fice \ˈär-tə-fəs\

Simple Definition of artifice

: dishonest or insincere behavior or speech that is meant to deceive someone


Full Definition of artifice

1
a : clever or artful skill : ingenuity <believing that characters had to be created from within rather than with artifice — Garson Kanin>
b : an ingenious device or expedient

2
a : an artful stratagem : trick
b : false or insincere behavior <social artifice>


Examples of artifice in a sentence

He spoke without artifice or pretense.

The whole story was just an artifice to win our sympathy.

Did You Know?

Do great actors display artifice or art? Sometimes a bit of both. "Artifice" stresses creative skill or intelligence, but also implies a sense of falseness and trickery. "Art" generally rises above such falseness, suggesting instead an unanalyzable creative force. Actors may rely on some of each, but the personae they display in their roles are usually artificial creations. Therein lies a lexical connection between "art" and "artifice." Artifice derives from "artificium," Latin for artifice (that root also gave English "artificial"). "Artificium" in turn developed from "ars," the Latin root underlying the word art (and related terms such as "artist" and "artisan").

Etymology:

Middle French, from Latin artificium, from artific-, artifex artificer, from Latin art-, ars + facere, do

Comments

[prettygoodword.livejournal.com]

I confess I don't think of the deception as a primary connotation -- more the 1a meaning, creation with skill. The golden bird in "Sailing to Byzantium (https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/sailing-byzantium)."

---L.

[med_cat]

Interestingly enough, I'd always thought of this word as meaning "trickery".