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Artiste

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Dimandja

Dimandja

Programmer
Apr 29, 2002
2,720
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When do you use this word,if at all?
 
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Never. It is pretentious. Anyone who is a real artist calls herself or himself an artist. Anyone who wants to be called an artiste is really a sales guy pretending to be an artist. If someone called me an artiste, I'd be insulted.

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It's used exclusively derogatorily, as far as I've ever heard it. I use it all the time for some of the people I deal with, people who believe that they are somehow sanctified because of their creative talent.

I had a girlfriend once who was an artiste.

I'm really glad that sentence is in the past tense; let's just leave it at that.
 
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I might use it if I was trying to put on a bad French accent.

[tt]-John[/tt]
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Exclusively in the derogative. And I use it very rarely -- mostly, I think, because the opportunity for its use is pretty rare.

The word, nearly every use I've heard of it in English, implies that a person whose talent is meager but whose pretention is enormous.


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TANSTAAFL!!
 
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Then again, a trapeze artiste wouldn't be quite the same as a trapeze artist would it?
 
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The phrase trapeze artiste invokes in my mind the image of a goateed man in tights, standing on a slowly-swinging trapeze bar while wearing a beret, smoking a foul-smelling, obscure brand of cigarette, and talking about the the quality of his ability on the trapeze while the poor schlub who just let go of the other trapeze falls to the net instead of being caught.


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Concise Oxford English Dictionary:

artiste /a:'ti;st/ n. a professional entertainer, especially a singer or dancer.
Click to expand...

Not really derogatory, unless you're calling the 17 stone shaven-headed driver of an 18-wheel semi an 'artiste', accompanied by a limp-wristed wave of the hanky. [smile]

"Woo-Hoo! Brutus, you're such an artiste, Luvvy!"

As an aside, do you guys not have access to proper dictionaries where you are?

Takes cover from the coming Brit vs. US slagging [rofl]

Chris

Varium et mutabile semper Excel
 
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SQLSister,
you wrote:
"If someone called me an artiste, I'd be insulted".

Maybe it is because you are a programmer? :-D

Somehow Artiste did not awake any bad vibes in my brain.
I imagine word Artist said by foreigner and this is it!
And this is actually what it IS - Artist word European way.
I think more Italian then Fench even.
No drama!
 
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But don't call the artiste's verbiage into question, because that would be insulting :)
 
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ZoomerZ, I'm also an artist.

Questions about posting. See faq183-874
 
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