Etymology: < Anglo-Norman articl, artikel, artickel, Anglo-Norman and Old French, Middle French article, Anglo-Norman and Middle French articule (French article ) moment in time (1190 in Old French in article de la mort : see note), each of the separate items of a summary of faith (13th cent.; compare article de foi : see note), critical point or moment (13th cent.), grammatical article (13th cent.), each of the distinct charges or counts of an accusation or indictment (13th cent.), multiple of ten (13th cent.), small part (e.g. point, chapter, or paragraph) of a treatise, contract, account, etc. (1248), particular circumstance (a1267 or earlier in Anglo-Norman), offence (late 13th cent. or earlier in Anglo-Norman), clause (13th or 14th cent. or earlier in Anglo-Norman), statute, ordinance (13th or 14th cent. or earlier in Anglo-Norman), term, condition (a1377 or earlier in Anglo-Norman), detail, particular (a1401 or earlier in Anglo-Norman), subject, matter (a1402 or earlier in Anglo-Norman), part of a document (late 15th cent.) and their etymon classical Latin articulus joint, limb, finger, subdivision, part, point of time, juncture, critical moment, clause or section, pronoun or pronominal adjective, (definite or indefinite) article, in post-classical Latin also a multiple of ten (from 8th cent. in British sources) < artus joint ( < an Indo-European base with the sense ‘to join’ which also ultimately underlies arm n.¹, art n.¹) + -culus -cle suffix. Compare Old Occitan article (13th cent.), Catalan article (14th cent.), Spanish artículo (c1050; 965 as artíqolo), Portuguese artículo (15th cent.), Italian articolo (a1306).Other senses of the English word are not paralleled in French until later, e.g. joint connecting two bones or parts of the body (16th cent.; compare sense 15), item of goods or trade (1679; compare sense 14a), part of a non-fictional piece of writing forming part of a journal, encyclopedia, etc. (1711; compare sense 7). With article of faith at Phrases 1a compare post-classical Latin articulus fidei (from 12th cent. in British and continental sources) and also Anglo-Norman article de la fei (1268 or earlier; compare also article de la creance (1268 or earlier)), Middle French, French article de foi (early 15th cent.; 13th cent. in Old French as article de la foi ), Old Occitan article de fe (c1400). With (in) the article (formerly also †articles) of death at Phrases 2 compare post-classical Latin articulus mortis (5th cent. in Augustine; from 8th cent. in British sources) and also Anglo-Norman and Middle French article de mort (late 13th cent. or earlier in Anglo-Norman), Middle French, French article de la mort (1190 in Old French). In Latin use in sense 10 after ancient Greek ἄρθρον . For the ancient Stoic grammarians the term ἄρθρα embraced both articles and pronouns, but they differentiated two categories, calling articles ἄρθρα ἀοριστώδη ‘indefinite joining words’ and pronouns ἄρθρα ὡρισμένα ‘definite joining words’. By the time of Apollonius Dyscolus (2nd cent. a.d.) the article and the pronoun had been classified as two separate parts of speech and designated ἄρθρον and ἀντωνυμία respectively. Correspondingly the Latin grammarians (from the time of Quintilian (1st cent. a.d.)) used articulus for article and pronomen for pronoun. Latin had no articles as such, and Greek had only a definite article (ὁ , ἡ , τό the adj.). The distinction between ‘definite’ (e.g. the ) and ‘indefinite’ (e.g. a ) articles arose in the context of the description of modern Romance languages, though the terms go back ultimately (via Latin) to the Greek terms mentioned above. Compare definite adj. and indefinite adj. The English terms appear to be unknown to Palsgrave (1530) though he distinguishes two articles in French, ung and le (without giving them specific names). The sense ‘limb, finger’ of classical Latin articulus survives in French as orteil (see further Französisches etymol. Wörterbuch XXV. at artĭcŭlus).

Etymology: < article n.