Hacker News Reader

> Where does the art thing come from in the article title?

A somewhat flowery but common English idiom used in preference to a bare noun or bare gerund phrase when referring to a generalized practice, particular in titles.

Has nothing to do with Japan.

View on HN

I remember this saying originating as a riff on The Art of War, but I have no evidence of that

Not a Japanese speaker, but I'm a native Chinese speaker. I know that Bingfa (The Art of War) could also be translated as The Practice of War or Methods of War. Translations are always interpretations because phrases aren't exact.

The Art of JavaScript sure does sound more exotic than The Practice of JavaScript, so I can see why a translator would make that choice.

Even in English, one of the meanings of "art" is a "skill as a result of learning or practice."

The word itself comes from Latin "ars," meaning a skill, a craft.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com