Ars
/ɑːrz/noun
A Latin term meaning art, skill, craft, or a systematic body of knowledge, used in English mainly in scholarly and literary expressions.
Did you know?In Roman thought, *ars* could describe everything from poetry and rhetoric to medicine, shipbuilding, and even the disciplined techniques of magic.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Indo-European
PIE
*ar-
“To fit together, join, or arrange—an ancestral idea linking skilled making with bringing parts into order.”
Proto-Italic
Proto-Italic
*artis
“Skill, method, or an organized way of doing something.”
Classical Latin
Latin
ars, artis
“Art, craft, skill, technique, or a learned discipline.”
1st Century BCE
Latin
ars poetica
“The art or principles of poetry; a formal body of rules governing poetic composition.”
Medieval Latin
Latin
ars
“A learned art or systematic discipline, especially in rhetoric, grammar, medicine, or philosophy.”
Modern English
English
ars
“A scholarly Latin loanword retained in expressions such as *ars poetica* and *ars moriendi*, “the art of dying.””