News Summary

• The OED's sense I.1.a.
• for artificial, dating to c1425, is "Of a thing: made or constructed by human skill, esp.
• in imitation of, or as a substitute for, something which is made or occurs naturally; man-made" The collocation of the words is so artificial in Shakspeare and Milton that you may as well think of pushing a brick out of that wall with your finger as of displacing a word without injury from one of their sentences.