artiste

Artiste is a noun meaning "artist" in French. While it is traditionally classified as masculine in dictionaries, it is actually one of the rare French nouns ending in -iste that is epicene (used for both masculine and feminine referents). In modern French, the gender depends on the person being described: "un artiste" for a male artist and "une artiste" for a female artist. The word derives from Italian "artista" (from Latin "ars," meaning art). Although the -iste suffix often produces masculine nouns in French for professions, "artiste" functions as a common gender noun in practice, with agreement marked through the article and adjectives rather than the noun itself.