In case it seemed otherwise, I wasn't intending my last reply to read as adversarial in any way.
On the contrary, I thought we shared a mutual frustration with the subject.

And, in any event, yes, you are correct. Definitions are an integral part of using words.

In case it seemed otherwise, I wasn't intending my last reply to read as adversarial in any way.
On the contrary, I thought we shared a mutual frustration with the subject. — ENOAH

Oh, adversarial wasn't what I thought. Thing is, I don't really have a problem with either the concept or the word. I don't think the compilers at Webster did, either. It's not until the recent commercial, technological and scatological contributions to graphic production and performance that the idea of what art is and what it's supposed to do have become problematic.

When I studied Art, most people were clear on the topic, even if they disagreed on the merit of individual items, though the academics and critics were in turmoil. This was during the 1960's, when the likes of Warhol and Duchamp had already upset the traditional concept of artistic expression. It was fashionable to debate endlessly whether art was the process of creation or the result, whether anything that altered a perspective on any subject, however trivial, should be considered art, and a whole heap of precious, pretentious posing by self-styled geniuses. It was then, too, that people who made stuff, whether it was all-the-same jewellery or big grey and red blobs on canvas, began to refer to their stuff as "The Work".
Since then, an awful lot of crap has been deposited in galleries.

After Warhol, every magazine illustration and movie poster was art; every bastard offspring of the theater and every drum-heavy pop song has been included in a broad, liberal, catch-all use of the word. It's not surprising so many people devalue the word, disparage all criteria and go with their gut reaction instead. That's always been the ultimate personal standard. But publicly funded installations and exhibitions must be controlled by a cooler intellect. The council or committee members who decide which sculpture to put in a park, which painting to buy for a museum, need definitive criteria. They must fall back on established words and concepts for their deliberations.