artifice

See also: artífice

English edit

Etymology edit

From Middle French artifice, from Latin artificium.

Pronunciation edit

IPA^(key): /ˈɑː(ɹ)tɪfɪs/
Audio (US) (file)

Noun edit

artifice (countable and uncountable, plural artifices)

A crafty but underhanded deception.
- 2021 November 21, Charles Hugh Smith, When Everything Is Artifice and PR, Collapse Beckons‎^[1]:
  The notion that consequence can be as easily managed as PR is the ultimate artifice and the ultimate delusion.
A trick played out as an ingenious, but artful, ruse.
- 2021 September 22, Caroline Siede, “Dear Evan Hansen is a misfire on just about every level”, in AV Club‎^[2]:
  The heightened worlds of darkly comedic satire and soapy high-school romance make it easy enough to roll with unrealistic casting choices—and that goes for stage musicals, too, where some level of artifice is built into the format.
A strategic maneuver that uses some clever means to avoid detection or capture.
A tactical move to gain advantage.
(archaic) Something made with technical skill; a contrivance.

Translations edit

crafty but underhanded deception

Bulgarian: хитрина (bg) (hitrina)
Catalan: artifici (ca) m
Esperanto: artifiko
French: artifice (fr) m, feinte (fr) f
Hungarian: megtévesztés (hu), ügyeskedés (hu), ügyesség (hu), csalafintaság (hu), ravaszkodás (hu), cselszövés (hu), rafinéria (hu), lelemény (hu), mesterkedés (hu)
Ido: artifico (io)
Portuguese: artifício (pt) m, artimanha (pt) f
Romanian: artificiu (ro) n
Serbo-Croatian: smicalica (sh), lukavstvo (sh)
Spanish: artificio (es) m

A trick played out as an ingenious, but artful, ruse

Esperanto: artifiko
German: Kunstgriff (de) m
Hungarian: fortély (hu), csel (hu), praktika (hu), cselfogás (hu), furfang (hu), trükk (hu)
Ottoman Turkish: صنعت (sanʼat, zanʼat)
Swedish: konstgrepp n

Verb edit

artifice (third-person singular simple present artifices, present participle artificing, simple past and past participle artificed)

To construct by means of skill or specialised art
- 1867, Egbert Pomroy Watson, The Modern Practice of American Machinists and Engineers […] ‎^[3]:
  The Creator has so cunningly endowed our bodies that there is no labor to be done, no skill in artificing or fashioning the metals, that is beyond our reach.
- 1900, Country Life‎^[4], volume 7, page 138:
  Some of the greatest artists of their day either furnished designs or with their own hands artificed ornaments for domestic use,
- 1922, Appalachian Mountain Club, The A.M.C. White Mountain Guide: A Guide to Trails in the Mountains‎^[5]:
  Splints and slings, already described, are easily artificed out of small saplings or from stiff bark.