Artist changed, losing second characteristic (5)
I believe the answer is:
trait
'characteristic' is the definition.
(I've seen this in other clues)
'artist changed losing second' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'artist' could be 'ra' (Royal Academician, member of Royal Academy of Arts) and 'ra' is found in the answer.
The remaining letters 'tit' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for trait that I've seen before include "A characteristic of straitened kind" , "Idiosyncrasy" , "Distinguishing feature" , "Habit" , "Distinguishing characteristic of personality" .)