virtu Look up virtu at Dictionary.com
"excellence in an object of art, passion for works of art," 1722, from It. virtu "excellence," from L. virtutem (nom. virtus) "virtue" (see virtue). The same word as virtue, borrowed during a period when everything Italian was in vogue. Sometimes spelled vertu, after Fr., but this is unjustified, as this sense of the word is not in Fr.