meaning - "State-of-the-art" and "technology"


I recently saw the etymology of the word technology and it comes from Greek thchni meaning art and logos which means word, reasoning, and stuff like that. So I reckon technology means doing something such that people consider it as a work of art. On the other hand, we sometimes see state-of-the-art which is used as adjective, or adverb in some contexts.


My question is, are they equal in meaning? Can we use them interchangeably? Is state-of-the-art a literal translation of technology?



Answer



No it isn't a translation, but there are connections.


The crucial thing to realise is that "art" (and its equivalents in Greek and Latin) have had a broad range of meanings. The Oxford English Dictionary lists 12 primary meanings for the noun (some of them further subdivided). It starts off meaning "skill", and then comes to denote different fields in which one might apply skill.


But the modern distinction between "art" as in fine arts and "technology" would have been barely intelligible to the classical Greeks.


I think "state of the art" uses "art" in a somewhat old-fashioned way, to mean a field of endeavour and creation, not necessarily artistic in the way we usually understand that word today.


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