Artifactual

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Relating to an object made by people, especially one of archaeological or historical interest ; describing a result produced by a flaw in the method rather than by the thing being studied
2. Of or concerning a human-made item or relic ; produced by an error, distortion or experimental flaw instead of a genuine underlying cause
3. Connected with something crafted by humans, such as an ancient tool ; resulting from an artificial effect of the process rather than from real phenomena

Etymology: Artifactual is a 19th-century English formation, built from "artifact" with the adjective suffix "-al." "Artifact" itself came into English in the early 1800s, borrowed from the Latin phrase "arte factum," meaning "made by art" or "made by skill," where "arte" is the ablative of "ars" (skill, craft) and "factum" is the past participle of "facere" (to make). The original sense was broad: anything made through human workmanship, as opposed to something occurring naturally. The adjective "artifactual" followed the same pattern, meaning "of or relating to an artifact" or "made by people rather than arising naturally." Its use is largely confined to archaeology, anthropology, and scientific or technical writing, where researchers need to separate human-made traces from natural features. A geologist might call a pattern in a rock artifactual if it turns out to be the result of tools or human activity rather than natural processes.

Synonyms: artificial, man-made

Antonyms: natural