vertu
UK/vəˈtuː/US/vɚˈtu/
vertu noun: the fine arts as a subject of study or expertise; understanding of arts and antiquities.
Noun
vertu (uncountable)
- The fine arts as a subject of study or expertise; understanding of arts and antiquities.
- 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).1750, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, A Foundling, volume III, London: Printed for A[ndrew] Millar, →OCLC, pages 238–239
- 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 […].1789, John Moore, Zeluco, Valancourt, published 2008, page 233
- Objets d'art collectively.
- A Catalogue of a Truly Valuable Assemblage of Articles of Virtu of William Chinnery, Esq. Brought from Gillwell, Essex[…].1812, William Chinnery, A Catalogue of a Truly Valuable Assemblage of Articles of Virtu of William Chinnery …, London: [s.n.], →OCLC, title page
- I marvelled that the king should regard a chapel as an object of vertù.1851, Herman Melville, “Moby-Dick or The White Whale”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name), Boston: The St. Botolph Society, published 1922, →OCLC, page 423
- Especially with reference to the writings of Machiavelli (1469–1527): the requisite qualities for political or military success; vitality, determination; power.
- 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...1976, Niccolò Machiavelli; James B. Atkinson, transl., The Prince [The Library of Liberal Arts; LLA-172], Indianapolis, Ind.: Bobbs-Merrill Company, ISBN 978-0-672-51542-2; reprinted as Indianapolis...
- 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...1996, Harvey C[laflin] Mansfield[, Jr.], Machiavelli's Virtue, Chicago, Ill.: University of Chicago Press, →ISBN, pages 6–7
- Moral worth; virtue, virtuousness.
Forms of vertu
| alternative form | vertù |
|---|---|
| alternative form | virtu |
Origin of vertu
Borrowed from Italian virtù, †vertù (“moral worth, virtue (13th century); determination, perseverance, military valour (14th century); study of the liberal or fine arts; appreciation of, taste for, or expertise in the fine arts; objets d'art collectively (16th century)”); or from French vertu (“virtue”), ultimately from Latin virtūt-, virtus (“virtue”). Doublet of virtue; compare also virtuoso.
Phrases with vertu
Words that rhyme with vertu
Questions about vertu
- What does vertu mean?
- Vertu means the fine arts as a subject of study or expertise; understanding of arts and antiquities.
- What part of speech is vertu?
- Vertu is a noun.
- How do you pronounce vertu?
- Vertu is pronounced /vəˈtuː/ (UK).
Words near vertu in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: vertu (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this entry: “vertu.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/vertu. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.