Pronunciations (2)
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/vəˈtuː/
Pronunciation notes
- Received-Pronunciation
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/vɚˈtu/
Pronunciation notes
- General-American
Noun
The fine arts as a subject of study or expertise; understanding of arts and antiquities.
Usage- Historical
- Uncountable
- Examples
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To give them their Due, they ſoar a Step higher than their Predeceſſors, and may be called Men of Wiſdom and Vertù (take heed you do not read Virtue).
More examples (1)
He engaged a certain Abbé of distinguished taste in virtù to attend them as their Ciceroné, and explain the antiquities brought from Herculaneum and Pompeia […].
Objets d'art collectively.
Usage- Historical
- Uncountable
- Examples
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A Catalogue of a Truly Valuable Assemblage of Articles of Virtu of William Chinnery, Esq. Brought from Gillwell, Essex[…].
I marvelled that the king should regard a chapel as an object of vertù.
More examples (2)
The more drawers and closets there were, the more hiding-holes could Charlotte make for the accommodation of old rags, hair-combs, old shoes, ribbons, cast-off artificial flowers, and other articles of vertù, wherein her soul delighted.
“I was anxious to add to my collection of theosophical tea-cups, spirit cigarettes, and other articles of vertu […].”
Especially with reference to the writings of Machiavelli (1469–1527): the requisite qualities for political or military success; vitality, determination; power.
Usage- Uncountable
- Examples
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More examples (3)
All these connotations, even the positive and moral ones, are within the range of significations Machiavelli wants us to hear in “virtù.” For him the word suggests a kind of flexibility that can initiate effective, efficient, and energetic action based on a courageous assertion of the will and an ability to execute the products of one's own calculations. Such calculations are a significant adjunct to his ideas about virtù: they outline what might be called an internal or mental virtù.
He alternately shocks his readers and provides relief from the very shocks he administers: Agathocles has virtù but cannot be said to have virtù. It is not enough to say that he uses the word in several “senses”; he uses it in two contradictory senses as to whether it includes or excludes evil deeds.
To oversimplify, Machiavelli uses virtù to refer both to “Christian” moral virtues, the conventional universalistic values embodied in the Golden Rule, and to a set of more particularistic classical virtues centered on honor. Together they comprise Machiavelli's account of the most noble and distinctive human excellences, achievements, and aspirations.
Moral worth; virtue, virtuousness.
Usage- Uncountable
Noun
love of or taste for fine objects of art
- Synonyms
- Broader terms
artistic quality
- Synonyms
- Broader terms