  an artist is a person engaged in one or more of any of a broad spectrum of activities related to creating art, practicing the arts, and/or demonstrating an art. the common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse is a practitioner in the visual arts only. the term is often used in the entertainment business, especially in a business context, for musicians and other performers (less often for actors). "artiste" (the french for artist) is a variant used in english only in this context. use of the term to describe writers, for example, is certainly valid, but less common, and mostly restricted to contexts like criticism. ==dictionary definitions== wiktionary defines the noun 'artist' (singular: artist; plural: artists) as follows: # a person who creates art. # a person who creates art as an occupation. # a person who is skilled at some activity. the oxford english dictionary defines the older broad meanings of the term "artist": * a learned person or master of arts * one who pursues a practical science, traditionally medicine, astrology, alchemy, chemistry * a follower of a pursuit in which skill comes by study or practice * a follower of a manual art, such as a mechanic * one who makes their craft a fine art * one who cultivates one of the fine arts â traditionally the arts presided over by the muses a definition of artist from princeton.edu: creative person (a person whose creative work shows sensitivity and imagination). ==history of the term== although the greek word "technÄ" is often mistranslated as "art," it actually implies mastery of any sort of craft. the adjectival latin form of the word, "technicus", oxford english dictionary s.v. technic became the source of the english words technique, technology, technical. in greek culture each of the nine muses oversaw a different field of human creation: * calliope (the 'beautiful of speech'): chief of the muses and muse of epic or heroic poetry * clio (the 'glorious one'): muse of history * erato (the 'amorous one'): muse of love or erotic poetry, lyrics, and marriage songs * euterpe (the 'well-pleasing'): muse of music and lyric poetry * melpomene (the 'chanting one'): muse of tragedy * polyhymnia or polymnia (the '[singer] of many hymns'): muse of sacred song, oratory, lyric, singing, and rhetoric * terpsichore (the '[one who] delights in dance'): muse of choral song and dance * thalia (the 'blossoming one'): muse of comedy a
Aesthetics Artists Arts Arts-related_lists Arts_occupations Humanities_occupations