Meaning

noun nonfictional prose forming an independent part of a publication

noun one of a class of artifacts

noun a separate section of a legal document (as a statute or contract or will)

originFrom Middle English article, from Old French article, from Latin articulus (“a joint, limb, member, part, division, the article in grammar, a point of time”), from Latin artus, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂értus (“that which is fit together; juncture, ordering”), from the root *h₂er- (“to join, fit (together)”). Doublet of articulus.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0