Art for art's sake Art for art's sake "Art for art's sake" is the usual English rendering of a French slogan from the early 19th century, "l'art pour l'art", and expresses a philosophy that the intrinsic value of art, and the only "true" art, is divorced from any didactic, moral, or utilitarian function. Such works are sometimes described as "autotelic", from the Greek "autoteles", "complete in itself", a concept that has been expanded to embrace "inner-directed" or "self-motivated" human beings. The term is sometimes used commercially. A Latin version of this phrase ("ARS GRATIA ARTIS") is used as a motto by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and appears
Latin influence in English already existed, and this caused enrichment of the Old English vocabulary: "culcer" and "læfel" "spoon" from Latin "coclearium" and "labellum" beside Old English "spōn" and "hlædel" (Modern English "ladle"); Old English "forca" from Latin "furca" "fork" next to Old English "gafol"; Old English "scamol" "chair, stool" from Latin "scamellum" beside native "stōl", "benc" and "setl". All told, approximately 600 words were borrowed from Latin during the Old English period. Often, the Latin word was severely restricted in sense, and was not widespread in use among the general populace. Latin words tended to be literary or scholarly terms and were not