inartifical and artifice and artificial

Even before I get started on this essay, I find myself delightfully (if briefly) diverted. I wanted to start this essay with artifice, which is, literally, the construction or work of an artificer. An artificer makes things by "art," or effort, rather than by "nature." But before getting to the collection of ideas swirling around art-type words, I thought to myself, what, then is a pontifex? The Pope is called the "pontiff," and the word "pontifex" is, literally, a "bridge builder." Before your heart gets all warm and you think that this means that the Pope has this designation because he "bridges the gap" between people, the Century tells us that this designation goes back to ancient Roman times. I quote: "prob. orig. so called as having charge of the making or maintenance of a bridge--it is said, of the Sublician bridge built over the Tiber by Ancus Marcius." The OED, however, tries to explain the word differently, as "perhaps" from the "Oscian-Umbrian" [in which I am not fluent] puntis, meaning "propitiatory offering," which was "assimilated to pons" (bridge). It seems that the OED is really stretching things, and that it is more interesting, and defensible, to think of the original "pontiff" as someone who had charge of a bridge.

Back to Artifice

Let's begin with how this word is used today. In a wonderfully-detailed "synonym-dictionary" article, the Century says that an artifice is a "maneuver, strategem, wile, trick, ruse, finesse, device, contrivance, cunning, craft, deception, cheat, fraud, guile, imposition, dodge, subterfuge, double-dealing." An artifice is "prepared with art or care; it is craftily devised," while the other terms stress something else about the plan that is devised. As early as the 17th century this usage of artifice as trick or ruse was attested: "He condemned Rhetorik, as being used rather as an Artifice, than an Art." Or, from the 18th century, "To practise these dishonest artifices." Thus, in our current usage, artifice can be contrasted with "art." While both emphasize the human effort or product that results, the former stresses deception while the latter emphasizes skill alone.

But, not so fast. The meaning of artifice as trick or contrivance is only the 7th definition of the term in the OED and the 3rd and 4th in the Century. A few others merit mention. The simplest definition, derived from "ars" (skill) and "facere" (make) is "the art of making." From Browne, in 1646: "Strabo affirmeth the Britons were so simple, that though they abounded in milk, they had not the artifice of cheese." Or, from the same author, "The early artifice in Brass and Iron under Tubal-Cain." This definition, emphasizing the making of a product, was augmented to include the product made. "God himself, the architect and mover of this divine artifice." Or, "the material universe, which is the artifice of God, the artifice of the best mechanic."

This meaning of artifice as product, soon bleeds over to artifice as skillful product. But whenever you emphasize human skill in doing something, you stretch into the realms of finesse or cleverness, and this is not far from the domain of trickery or ruse. We can see the word wavering between skill and cunning in these quotations from the 17th century: "Had it not bin by artifice they could never have taken them." [Does this emphasize the skill of the action; the cunningness of it; or does it leave it tantalizingly unclear?] Or, from Daniel Defoe (18th century): "All the artifice and sleight of hand they were masters of."

Moving to Artificial

Now that we have taken this journey with artifice, it is much easier to understand artificial/inartificial. The oldest attestation of artificial in English ["made by or resulting from art or artifice;...brought about by constructive skill"], comes from Wyclif (1382), where he says: "Not as bi naturel order, bot by artificial order." John Locke, in his Treatise on Human Understanding (1690) could speak of "An artifical thing being a production of Man, which the Artificer designed." When deist philosophy triumphed in the 18th century, the "stock" of Artificer rose to its highest level.

But artificial continued to emphasize the contrast with natural. It could refer to the results produced by the human use of natural products, such as artificial light or to something made by art in imitation of, or as a substitute for, what is natural or real, such as in "An artificial flie of silk" or "How to make an artificial Bird to fly." When artificial is then associated with something that may not have a "real" existence, such as the artificial bird, we are not too far away from the meaning of artificial as "merely made up; factitious; hence, feigned, fictitious." From 1758, Samuel Johnson could say: "Endeavor to kindle in myself an artifical impatience." Or, from Lecky, the vigorous 19th century opponent of orthodox religion, "Religion..became an artifical thing of relics and ceremonies."

Finally, before moving to inartificial, I need to mention one other definition of artificial. It was invented by that bridge-playing Culbertson duo to mean "strength showing." "Artificial bidding: When the partner bids, for example, five hearts to show that he has two aces, has bid nothing whatsoever to do with the hearts in his hand."

Conclusion

Maybe the next volume of my autobiography should be entitled "The Artificial Life," with chapters based on the various meanings of the term. I would even put in a bit about how my parents taught my brother and me to play bridge, beginning when I was eight, so they could have some entertainment on long winter evenings.

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