It's Merriam-Webster's word of the day for May 18th.

Today's word is Artifice, spelled A-R-T-I-F-I-C-E. Artifice is a noun. It refers to dishonest or insincere behavior or speech that is meant to deceive someone. It can also be used to mean

clever or artful skill. Here's the word used in a sentence from The Atlantic by Jacob Stern.

At the time almost every comedy on air was filmed live in front of a studio

audience, or at least pretended to be. Pretty much all of the biggest shows used a laugh track,

the Andy Griffith show, the Beverly Hillbillies, Green Acres.

Savvy viewers might have figured out that not all of the giggles and guffaws were real,

but few people outside the industry understood the extent of the artifice.

Do great actors display artifice or art?

Sometimes a bit of both.

Artifice stresses creative skill or intelligence, but it also implies a sense

of falseness and trickery. Art generally rises above such falseness, suggesting instead an

unanalyzable creative force.

Actors may rely on some of each, but the personi they display in their roles are usually

artificial creations.

Therein lies a lexical connection between the words art and artifice.

Artifice comes from Artificium, Latin for artistry, craftsmanship, craftiness, and cunning.

That route also gave us the English word artificial.

Artificium, in turn, developed from ours, ARS, the Latin route underlying the word art and related terms such as artist and

artisan. With your word of the day I'm Peter Sokolowski.

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