austerity
(ɔːˈstɛrɪtɪ)
Forms: 4 austerité, austernete, 7 austeritie, 7– austerity.
[a. OF. austerité (14th c. in Littré), ad. late L. austēritātem (cf. Gr. αὐστηρότης), f. austērus austere: see -ity.]
1. Harshness to the taste, astringent sourness.
| 1634 T. Johnson tr. Parey's Chirurg. xxvi. vii. (1678) 632 Acerbity and austerity. 1676 Beal in Phil. Trans. XI. 585 A wild black Plum..of no harsh or unpleasant austerity. 1718 Quincy Compl. Disp. 80 Sage..has an Austerity upon the Palate. |
2. a. Harshness to the feelings; stern, rigorous, or severe treatment or demeanour; judicial severity.
| 1340 Hampole Pr. Consc. 5376 Þe gret austerité, Þat Crist sal shew þat day. c 1380 Wyclif De Papa Wks. (1880) 471 Seculer prinsis shulden teche to drede god by austernete and worldly drede. 1579 E. K. in Spenser's Sheph. Cal. Feb. Gloss., Dismayed at the grimnes and austeritie of his countenaunce. 1614 Raleigh Hist. World ii. (1736) 532 He gave presence..with such austeritie, that no man durst presume to spit or cough in his sight. 1775 Burke Sp. Conc. Amer. Wks. 1842 I. 181 Notwithstanding the austerity of the Chair. |
b. transf. Rigour; rugged sternness. arch.
| 1713 Lond. & Count. Brewer ii. (1743) 149 Before the Austerity of the Winter renders such a damp watery Place too chilly. 1817 Byron Manfred iii. iv. 33 Which soften'd down the hoar austerity Of rugged desolation. |
3. a. Severe self-discipline or self-restraint; moral strictness, rigorous abstinence, asceticism.
| 1590 Shakes. Mids. N. i. i. 90 Or on Dianaes Altar to protest For aie, austerity, and single life. 1655 Fuller Ch. Hist. ii. iii. I. 271 The Monks..whose primitive over-Austerity in Abstinence was turned now into Self-sufficiency. 1750 Johnson Rambl. No. 141 ¶6 To dissipate the gloom of collegiate austerity. 1856 Mrs. Stowe Dred. xxvii. II. 274 The rigid austerity of his life. |
b. esp. in pl. Severely abstinent or ascetic practices.
| 1664 H. More Myst. Iniq. xviii. 69 Several other Anti⁓christian Austerities. 1739 Wesley Wks. (1872) I. 178 By holiness meaning, not fasting or bodily austerities. 1851 Sir J. Stephen Hist. France xvii. II. 174 The cell and the austerities of an anchorite. |
4. a. Severe simplicity; lack of luxury or adornment.
| 1875 Mrs. Charles in Sund. Mag. June 586 The very bareness and austerity..was to the Gothic soldiers a proof of hidden treasure. 1883 Coan in Harper's Mag. June 125/2, I should restrict this austerity to the dyspeptics. |
b. Applied attrib., esp. during the war of 1939–45, to clothes, food, etc., in which non-essentials were reduced to a minimum as a war-time measure of economy. Also absol.
| 1942 Times Weekly 2 Dec. 14/2 A General Limitation Order—..which suggests that the United States have got quite a way on the road to austerity. 1942 Times of India 31 Dec. 8/4 The first of a fleet of ‘austerity’ buses has just been completed in Britain... Fittings are kept to essentials and anything approaching luxury has been.. cut out. 1944 Times 16 Feb. 8/3 Mr. Dalton..said that austerity clothing was not unsaleable. On the contrary, many men evidently thought that at 20 coupons austerity suits were a good bargain. 1951 R. Knox Stimuli iv. 9 There is a real humility in imitating a God who was born in a utility nursery, and laid in an austerity cradle to match it. |