Dictionary

unartistic en · ADJ

Pronunciation

• /ˌʌnɑɹˈtɪstɪk/ (General-American)
• /ˌʌnɑːˈtɪstɪk/ (Received-Pronunciation)

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *né Proto-Indo-European *n̥- Proto-Germanic *un- Proto-West Germanic *un- Old English un- Middle English un- English un- Proto-Indo-European *h₂er- Proto-Indo-European *h₂értis Proto-Italic *artis Latin ars Proto-Indo-European *-id- Proto-Indo-European *-yéti Proto-Indo-European *-idyéti Proto-Hellenic *-íd͏̌d͏̌ō Ancient Greek -ῐ́ζω (-ĭ́zō) Proto-Hellenic *-tās Ancient Greek -τής (-tḗs) Ancient Greek -ῐστής (-ĭstḗs)bor. Latin -ista Late Latin artistader. French artiste Proto-Indo-European *-ikos Proto-Italic *-ikos Latin -icuslbor. Old French -ique Middle French -ique French -ique French artistiquebor. English artistic English unartistic From un- + artistic.

Meanings

1. Not artistic.
   • They've gotten their foot up that high, and they want to show it off. Well, that's an unartistic idea about dancing. It's a plebeian, low-class idea. 1993 October 24, Jennifer Dunning, quoting Paul Taylor, “Paul Taylor Hates Ballet. (Want to Bet?)”, in The New York Times, Arts & Leisure, page 1:
   • If such works—altered by ritual use, incorporating the most “unartistic” materials from the traditional Western viewpoint, and as far from illusionistic in style as Picasso could ever have seen—can appear “reasonable” to a Western artist, that artist has performed an almost magical act of projection and inversion of the ordinary meaning of the work as “rational.” 1990, Patricia Leighten, “The White Pearl and L’Art nègre : Politics, Primitivism, and Anticolonialism”, in The Art Bulletin, volume 74, number 4, →DOI, page 623+:
   • If you have never had it, and you are devoid of an interest in what is truly beautiful, then you will belong to the unartistic group of people. 1942, Mildred Graves Ryan, Your Clothes and Personality, D. Appleton, pages 107–8:

Forms

Deriveds

unartistically

Translations (1)

fi epätaiteellinen (not artistic)