[f. as prec. + -NESS.] Austerity.
1. Harshness or astringent sourness to the taste.
1676. Beal, in Phil. Trans., XI. 585. An austerenes that must be allay’d … with a little Sugar.
1751. Chambers, Cycl., s.v. Austerity, Austereness of taste.
2. Harshness, sternness, severity; severe self-discipline, moral strictness.
1579. Tomson, Calvin’s Serm. Tim., 392/2. S. Paul condemned them that through austernesse of life … serued God.
1646. Sir T. Browne, Pseud. Ep., 372. If an indifferent and unridiculous object could draw his habituall austerenesse unto a smile.
1829. J. H. Newman, in Spurgeon, Treas. Dav., Ps. cxix. 75. I saw thy face In kind austereness clad.
