# STYLE **Opening (not a real abstract):** The notion of style plays an important role in a number of disciplines (e.g. anthropology, archeology, art history and publishing) – the theory of art has no monopoly on the concept. In fact, the earliest systematic discussions of style appear in Greek and Roman writings on rhetoric. The term “style” (derived from the Latin word “stilus,” which refers to the mechanism used for writing on wax tablets in ancient Rome) is used widely in ordinary discourse to characterize a range of nonaesthetic and nonartistic activities and objects. Nonetheless, style is a central notion in the arts, and it is primarily from the perspective of the arts that it will be discussed in this chapter. Criticism, history and theory of the arts make reference to a wide range of kinds of style, which may be individuated with respect to the ultimate bearers of the style. Individual style (e.g. Vermeer’s style, Hitchcock’s style) may be distinguished from various **Authors:** [[Aaron Meskin]]