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Lexicography and
Lexicology
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Artist
One of the most frequently used words on the RollingStone website, due to the fact that the main topics discussed here are about actors, musicians, celebrities… Overall people who can be considered “artists”
Tools:
● Institutional Learner Dictionary: Cambridge Learner’s Dictionary (Online), Oxford Learner’s Dictionary (Online), Oxford English Dictionary (Online), Online Etymology Dictionary, Collins Cobuild Advanced Learner’s Dictionary (Paper) ● Crowdsourced online dictionaries and dictionaries aggregators: Urban Dictionary, Wordnik, Wiktionary ● Internet tools: Visuwords, Just the word ● Corpus based tools: COCA, TV corpus and SKEll A.a. 2021/
Definition
If we search for the word “artist” in the Oxford Learner's Dictionary and Cambridge Learner's Dictionary, we can notice that they both give the same definition for this word, as a noun used to refer to “someone who creates art” Oxford Cambridge However, while Cambridge Learner's Dictionary is able to give us only one definition, associating the artist mainly with a painter, Oxford Dictionary for learners presents us another one, expanding the figure of the artist, as someone who performs other types of artistic disciplines, such as singing, dancing or acting The Oxford English Dictionary is the source that’s able to provide us with a broader meaning of this word, because it doesn’t define “art” as a specific activity, such as painting or singing, but as a general display of creativity and talent (even though more precise definitions directly referring to actors, musicians, painters etc. are present)
Origin and Etymology
As stated in the Online Etymology Dictionary, as well in the OED, the word originates from multiple sources, mainly from the French word “artiste” and Latin word “artista”, which also is responsible for the homonymous Italian word. It began to be used around the end of the 16th century, in order to refer to someone “who cultivates one of the fine arts”. Of course the word “artist” is correlated to the word “art”, and the meaning of the first one tended to change with the second one. As stated in The Online Etymology Dictionary, around the early 13th century, “art” referred also to the skill in scholarship, especially in the seven sciences; in the same way, there are now obsolete forms of the word “artist” which referred to this figure as a scientist or scholar. While from the 17th century it’s more common to think about art, and consequently about the artist, as someone who’s able to paint, sculpt, etc.
Considering it as an adjective, the origin is the same, as a borrowing from the French word “artiste”. The word “artiste” also began to spread in the English lexicon around the beginning of the 19th century, in order to be used almost as a synonym of “artist”, but with a much more expanded meaning, given the fact that the word “artist” was restricted merely to painters and sculptors.
Comparisons of the definitions
If we compare the definitions given by different crowdsourced online tools or dictionaries aggregators, we can notice some differences and/or some additions.
The Urban Dictionary is a crowdsourced online dictionary, where anyone can suggest a new word/phrase or a new definition of a word, years before establishment lexicographers catch on. It mostly contains words from the spoken language and slang. One of the top definitions gives a really general and broad concept of who an artist is, telling us that anyone can be identified as an artist, as long as they create any sort of art, anything that can be considered art.
Wiktionary is a multilingual, web-based project to create a free content dictionary of terms (including words, phrases, proverbs, linguistic reconstructions, etc.) in all natural languages. It is collaboratively edited. Similarly to the previously consulted dictionaries, the origin is found in French and Latin, but there’s also a reference to the Old English term “cræftiga”, the meaning of which, however, is more similar to “craftsman” or “skilled worker”, rather than “artist” as we mean it nowadays. The definitions here are simple and general, except for the last one, which portrays the artist as a musician. Some additional information provided by Wiktionary are the derived terms from the word, interpreted both as a person who creates art and as a person who’s skilled at some activity. Meaning to some of the derived terms:
- Ecoartist : A person who uses art to bring about awareness of environmental issues. Or a person who uses reclaimed and recycled materials as their media to create art, causing as little damage to the environment as possible
- Starving artist : A person who works as an artist or performer despite making little or no money for it, therefore suffering in poverty.
- Foley artist : A person who creates sound effects and adds them to film and TV images
- Grog artist : One who drinks habitually.
- Con artist : A person who defrauds or swindles others after first gaining their trust.
- Pickup artist : One who uses specialised tactics to seduce women.
- Jab artist : A boxer who fights with short jab-like punches.
- Clutch artist : A person who drives a motor vehicle, especially one equipped with a manual transmission, in a particularly skillful manner. Or a player who performs especially well in crucial situations.
Idioms
Some of the most popular idioms are: ● A flimflam artist : someone who acts deceptively and tries to trick people. The word "flimflam" is thought to be of Scandinavian origin ● Born to be an artist : Possessing an innate talent or ability in a particular area ● Castor oil artist : a doctor ● Artist’s retreat. A place away from a typical environment, usually secluded, so that an artist may reflect and create undisturbed. Also called an Artist-in-Residency
Lexical relations
This image allows us to analyse the word ‘ artist ’ through its definitions and connections. Different colours represent different parts of the speech: nouns are blue, verbs are green, adjectives are orange and adverbs are red. Most of the words are common terms, such as artwork, artistic movement, artistically and artistic creation, but there are also some particular words. For example artist’s loft (a factory loft that has been converted into an artist's workroom and living area), artist’s model (a person who poses for a painter or sculptor), artistry ( is the creative skill of an artist, writer, actor, or musician), artistic workroom (a studio especially for an artist or designer) and artiste (a skilled performer, especially a dancer, singer, or actor).
Collocations
through prepositions or through “and”, either before or after it. It’s also heavily used with prepositions, which come either before or after this noun. Some commonly used collocations are: artist in (256), by artist (614) and as artist (271)
Compounds
Some compounds are quite easy to understand and are also predictable. But some others are less known or, as opposed, unexpected, such as “artist’s fungus”.
Corpus analysis
1. COCA (Corpus of Contemporary American English) The COCA shows that the frequency of the word “artist” is 55423 It also shows that it’s mainly used in magazines (such as The Rolling Stone ), but it’s also quite frequent in the news and in academic transcriptions. Also the topics, the collocates and the words related to “artist” are present, showing us how, even here, the most widespread conception of the artist is connected to the figure of the painter or the sculptor. Even in the synonyms, one of the two categories is “painter”, while the other one shows the artist as a performer of any sort. 2. TV CORPUS This shows all the appearances of words in movies and tv shows from 1950 to 2018. Here is reported that the frequency of the word is 10127 Despite the fact that the rest of the analysis of the word is the same as the one present in the COCA, the only thing that changes are the topics, which are now more oriented towards the world of music.
