“arte”, inCharlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879),A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press “artus”, inCharlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879),A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
“arte”, inCharlton T. Lewis (1891),An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
“arte”, inDitzionàriu in línia de sa limba e de sa cultura sarda [Online Dictionary of the Sardinian Language and Culture] (in Sardinian, Italian, and English),Autonomous Region of Sardinia [Sardinian:Regione Autonoma della Sardegna]
The gender is masculine or feminine in singular formel arte(“the art”) and typically feminine in plural formlas artes(“the arts”).
Before feminine nouns beginning with stressed/ˈa/ likearte, the singular definite article takes the form ofel (otherwise reserved for masculine nouns) instead of the usualla:el arte. This includes the contracted formsal anddel (instead ofa la andde la, respectively):al arte,del arte.
This also applies to the indefinite article, which takes the form ofun, which is otherwise used with masculine nouns (although the standard feminine formuna also occurs):un arte oruna arte. The same is true with determinersalgún/alguna andningún/ninguna, as well as for numerals ending with 1 (e.g.,veintiún/veintiuna).
However, if another word intervenes between the article and the noun, the usual feminine singular articles and determiners (la,una etc.) are used:la mejor arte,una buena arte.
In these cases,el andun are not masculine but feminine, deriving from Latinilla anduna, respectively, even though they are identical in form to the corresponding masculine singular articles. Thus, they areallomorphs of the feminine singular articlesla anduna.
The use of these allomorphs does not change the gender agreement of the adjectives modifying the feminine noun:el arte única,un(a) arte buena.
In the plural, the usual feminine plural articles and determiners (las,unas, etc.) are always used.