From Latin 'artificium' (skill), from 'artifex' (craftsman) — 'ars' (skill) + '-fex' (maker), the craft of clever making.
Clever or cunning devices or expedients, especially as used to trick or deceive others; the quality of being skillfully made or contrived.
From Old French 'artifice,' from Latin 'artificium' (skill, craft, a work of art, a cunning device or stratagem), from 'artifex' (craftsman, artisan, artist), a compound of 'ars, artis' (skill, craft, method, technique) + '-fex' (maker, agent noun from 'facere,' to make, to do). The root of 'ars' is Proto-Indo-European *h₂er- (to fit together, to join, to put in order), which produced Sanskrit 'ṛta' (cosmic order, rightness — the principle of things arranged correctly), Greek 'arariskein' (to fit, to join → 'harmonia,' a fitting together, the root of 'harmony'), Greek 'arti' (just now — at the precise moment of fitting), Latin 'arma' (weapons — things fitted and equipped for war), 'artus' (joint, limb — the body's fitting-points), and ultimately 'art' itself as the practice of skilled fitting-together. The root of 'facere' is PIE
The word 'art' (from Latin 'ars') originally meant 'skill' or 'craft' — any learned human ability, not just fine arts. An 'artificer' was simply a skilled maker. The shift of 'art' from 'skill' to 'creative beauty' happened gradually between the Renaissance and the Romantic era. 'Artifice' preserves the older
Words closest in meaning, ranked by similarity