[ar.ti.cle] n [ME, fr. OF, fr. L articulus joint, division, dim. of artus joint, limb; akin to Gk arariskein to fit--more at arm] (13c) 1 a: a distinct often numbered section of a writing b: a separate clause c: a stipulation in a document (as a contract or a creed) d: a nonfictional prose composition usu. forming an independent part of a publication (as a magazine)
2: an item of business: matter
3: any of a small set of words or affixes (as a, an, and the) used with nouns to limit or give definiteness to the application
4: a member of a class of things; esp: an item of goods "~s of value"
5: a thing of a particular and distinctive kind "the genuine ~"
[2]article vt ar.ti.cled ; ar.ti.cling (1820): to bind by articles (as of apprenticeship)