[ad_1] noun, plural ar·tistes [ahr-teests; French arteest] /ɑrˈtists; French ˈartist/.
- an artist, especially an actor, singer, dancer, or other public performer.
noun
- an entertainer, such as a singer or dancer
- a person who is highly skilled in some occupationa hair artiste
1819 in English, from 1804 as a French word, from French artiste; a reborrowing of artist, at first in a foreign context, later used to fill the gap after the sense of artist had become limited toward the visual arts and especially painting.
Artiste: an admirable word (albeit somewhat Frenchified) of late applied, with nice discrimination, to every species of exhibitor, from a rope-dancer down to a mere painter or sculptor. On looking into little Entick (my great authority in these matters), I find we have already the word artist; but with stupid English perversity, we have hitherto used that in a much more restricted sense than its newly-imported rival, which it is becoming the excellent fashion to adopt. [“Paul Pry’s Journal of a Residence at Little-Pedlington,” Philadelphia, 1836]