different between agency vs artifact

English

Etymology

From Medieval Latin agentia, from Latin ag?ns (present participle of agere (“to act”)), agentis (cognate with French agence, see also agent).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?e?.d??n.si/

Noun

agency (countable and uncountable, plural agencies)

1. The capacity, condition, or state of acting or of exerting power.

   Synonyms: action, activity, operation

   • 1695, John Woodward, An Essay toward a Natural History of the Earth and Terrestrial Bodies, especially Minerals, &c

     A few advances there are in the following papers tending to assert the superintendence and agency of Providence in the natural world.

2. (sociology, philosophy, psychology) The capacity of individuals to act independently and to make their own free choices.

   Coordinate terms: free will, structure

   • 2001, Todd McGowan, The Feminine "No!", SUNY Press (?ISBN), page 105:

     Formally, capitalism performs its fundamental gesture—reappropriation without transformation. This bears on the question of subjective agency because this “reappropriation without transformation” is exactly what agency seeks to avoid; such a process indicates, in fact, that one's agency has failed, that one really had no agency in the first place.

   • 2012, Edmund V. Sullivan, A Critical Psychology, Springer Science & Business Media (?ISBN), page 75:

     Strictly speaking, at the level of personal agency one could say that power is a condition where one is “enabled.” I would contend that this is a condition of personal agency.

   • 2013, Andy Clark, Julian Kiverstein, Tillmann Vierkant, Decomposing the Will, Oxford University Press (?ISBN), page 112:

     The feeling of being in control of one's body should involve the sense of body-ownership, plus an additional sense of agency.

3. A medium through which power is exerted or an end is achieved.

   Synonyms: instrumentality, means

4. The office or function of an agent; also, the relationship between a principal and that person's agent.

5. An establishment engaged in doing business for another; also, the place of business or the district of such an agency.

   Synonym: management

   Hyponyms: advertising agency, dating agency, employment agency, escort agency, introduction agency, modelling agency, news agency, press agency, relief agency, syndication agency, travel agency

   • 2012, Simon Toms, The Impact of the UK Temporary Employment Industry in Assisting Agency Workers since the Year 2000, Cambridge Scholars Publishing (?ISBN), page 277:

     As an employment agency you have a responsibility to supply work to the individual agency worker, as well as a service to the client.

6. A department or other administrative unit of a government; also, the office or headquarters of, or the district administered by such unit of government.

   Hyponyms: antitrust agency, intelligence agency, space agency

Related terms

• act
• action
• agent

Translations

Further reading

• agency in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• agency on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• agency (sociology) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• agency (philosophy) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• law of agency on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• moral agency on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• structure and agency on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• Cagney, gynæc-

English

Etymology

Alteration of artefact, from Italian artefatto, from Latin arte (“by skill”) (ablative of ars (“art”)) + factum (“thing made”) (from facio (“to make, do”)).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /???t?fækt/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /???t?fækt/, [-??-], [-??-]
• Hyphenation: ar?ti?fact

Noun

artifact (plural artifacts)

1. An object made or shaped by human hand or labor.
2. An object made or shaped by some agent or intelligence, not necessarily of direct human origin.
3. Something viewed as a product of human agency or conception rather than an inherent element.
   • 2004, Philip Weiss, American Taboo: A Murder In The Peace Corps

     The very act of looking at a naked model was an artifact of male supremacy.
4. A finding or structure in an experiment or investigation that is not a true feature of the object under observation, but is a result of external action, the test arrangement, or an experimental error.

5. (archaeology) An object, such as a tool, ornament, or weapon of archaeological or historical interest, especially such an object found at an archaeological excavation.
6. (biology) An appearance or structure in protoplasm due to death, the method of preparation of specimens, or the use of reagents, and not present during life.
7. (computing) A perceptible distortion that appears in an audio or video file or a digital image as a result of applying a lossy compression algorithm.

Usage notes

The spelling artifact is preferred by most American dictionaries, while artefact is the preferred spelling in Australia’s Macquarie Dictionary with artifact listed as a variant.

Alternative forms

• artefact (Australian and British spelling)

Translations

Further reading

• artifact in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• “artifact”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–present.