Also 7 artisane, -zen, 8 -sant, 6– artizan. [a. F. artisan, according to Diez ad. It. artigiano:—late L. *artitiānus, f. artītus, pa. pple. of artī-re to instruct in arts. Cf. partisan.]
† 1. One who practises or cultivates an art; an artist. Obs.
c. 1590. Marlowe, Faustus, i. 53. O what a world of profit and delight … Is promis’d to the studious artizan.
1601. Holland, Pliny, II. 535. But Parrhasius hath deceiued Zeuxis, a professed artisane.
1621. Ainsworth, Annot. Pentat., Ex. vii. 11. Devillish Arts and Artizens, such as God’s law condemneth.
1795. Mason, Ch. Music, iii. 208. When a natural faculty is … advanced into an Art … its Artisans are ever ready to apply their exertions to it.
2. One who is employed in any of the industrial arts; a mechanic, handicraftsman, artificer.
1538. Starkey, England, 159. Few artysanys of gud occupatyon.
1611. Cotgr., s.v. Doigt, The Germans … are better Artisans then Artists, better at handy-crafts then at head-craft.
1713. Phil. Trans., XXVIII. 225. The Artisants here have wonderful Skill.
1751. Johnson, Rambl., No. 145, ¶ 1. The meanest artisan … contributes more to the accommodation of life, than the profound scholar.
1849. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., I. 420. We pass from the weavers of cloth to a different class of artisans.
3. transf. or fig.
1599. Harsnet, Agst. Darell, 21. Jesuites and Popish Artizans [printed Anti-].
1623. Mabbe, trans. Aleman’s Guzman d’Alf., II. 346. That Supreme Artizan that painted to the Life both heaven and Earth.
b. attrib. quasi-adj. (It is adj. in Fr.)
1859. Mill, Liberty, iv. (1865), 52/1. Opinions similar in principle … prevail widely among the artizan class.
