Spartan

How to spell spartan

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce spartan

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does spartan mean?

1. adjectiveMarked by strict simplicity, frugality, or a complete lack of comfort and luxury.

Spartan in a sentence

• The budget hotel offered a spartan room with a bed and nothing else.

• His spartan diet of rice and vegetables kept his grocery bill remarkably low.

Where does spartan come from?

Language of origin: Greek

This word traces back to Sparta, the ancient Greek city-state known to its own people as Spartē, whose citizens were famous for their iron discipline, military training, and refusal of luxury. The Greek adjective Spartiates described a full citizen of that society, and the Romans Latinised the place name as Sparta with the adjective Spartanus, meaning 'of Sparta'. English adopted the form 'Spartan' in the 1500s, at first simply to mean a native of the region, and soon afterwards as a description of anyone showing the same hardy, frugal, self-denying way of life. Because the Spartans were remembered above all for plain food, harsh upbringing, and bare comfort, the lower-case sense 'austere, simple, and lacking luxury' became the everyday meaning. The single 't' and the -an ending are the usual spelling points: it is built on the place name Sparta, not on any double letter, so resist the urge to insert anything extra.

How the word is built

• spart- (from Sparta, the ancient Greek city-state)
• -an (adjective suffix meaning 'relating to')