Synonyms help us connect unknown words with known words. For example, one may not know the meaning of the word "nefarious" when used in this context: "The offense was more nefarious than previously thought." If we replace "nefarious" with "evil" or "wretched" the meaning is more comprehensible to those who don't know the meaning of "nefarious": The offense was more evil (wretched) than previously thought."
I hope this helps, I used nefarious as a somewhat uncommon term to better illustrate my point, and to explain why we use synonyms to learn new words. Simply put, synonyms bridge us to the unknown using the known as solid ground build from.
The answer would be meter
Does our culture consider cooks and carpenters to be as high in their status as lawyers or doctors (remember I'm not asking what we think, but what value our culture generally gives to those professions)? Our culture creates a distinction that we sometimes refer to as "blue collar" work versus "white collar" work.
In the Middle Ages and even for much of the Renaissance, the artist was seen as someone who worked with his hands—they were considered skilled laborers, craftsmen, or artisans. This was something that Renaissance artists fought fiercely against. They wanted, understandably, to be considered as thinkers and innovators. And during the Renaissance the status of the artist does change dramatically, but it would take centuries for successful artists to gain the extremely high status we grant to "art stars" today (for example, Pablo Picasso, Andy Warhol, Jeff Koons, or Damien Hirst).
