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, trans. 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. Harshness to the feelings; stern, rigorous, or severe treatment or demeanor; judicial severity.
c. 1340. Richard Rolle of Hampole, Prick of Conscience, 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. Rigor; 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. Severe self-discipline or self-restraint; moral strictness, rigorous abstinence, asceticism.
1590. Shaks., 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 Antichristian 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. 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.
