Austerity

How to spell austerity

9 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce austerity

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does austerity mean?

1. nounA government policy of sharply reduced public spending, usually to cut debt or deficits.
2. nounSternness, plainness, or extreme simplicity in manner, appearance, or way of life.

Austerity in a sentence

• Years of austerity left local libraries underfunded and short-staffed.

• The monastery was famous for the austerity of its bare stone cells.

• The budget ushered in a new round of austerity across every department.

• Her clothing reflected a personal austerity that bordered on self-denial.

Where does austerity come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word traces back to the Greek austeros, which originally described a harsh, bitter, drying taste, the sort of sensation an unripe fruit or strong wine leaves on the tongue. From that literal flavour the sense broadened to mean stern, severe, or forbidding in manner. Latin took the word as austerus and built the noun austeritas to name the quality of harshness or strictness. English borrowed it through Old French austerite during the 1300s, at first for moral sternness and a plain, self-denying way of life. In the modern era it gained its now familiar economic sense, describing a government policy of cutting public spending; the older flavour of grim self-denial still clings to it, which is why the word feels so bleak.

How the word is built

• auster- (from Latin austerus: harsh, severe)
• -ity (noun-forming suffix denoting a quality or state)