austerity

English

Etymology

From Old French austerité (“harshness, severity”), from Latin austēritās (“harshness, sourness”). See austere.

Noun

austerity (countable and uncountable; plural austerities)

1. Severity of manners or life; extreme rigor or strictness; harsh discipline.
2. Freedom from adornment; plainness; severe simplicity.
3. (economics) A policy of deficit-cutting, lower spending, and a reduction in the amount of benefits and public services provided.
   • 2012 April 23, Angelique Chrisafis, “François Hollande on top but far right scores record result in French election”, the Guardian:

     He said France clearly wanted to "close one page and open another". He reiterated his opposition to austerity alone as the only way out of Europe's crisis: "My final duty, and I know I'm being watched from beyond our borders, is to put Europe back on the path of growth and employment."

4. (obsolete) Sourness and harshness to the taste.

Antonyms

• (severity of manners or life): comfort

Related terms

• austere
• austerely

Translations

severity of manners or life

• Bulgarian: строгост (bg) (strogost), суровост (bg) (surovost)
• Czech: přísnost (cs) f
• Finnish: ankaruus (fi), karuus (fi)
• German: Einschränkung (de) f, Härte (de) f, Strenge (de) f, Austerität (de) f
• Greek: λιτότητα (el) (litótita) f
• Icelandic: strangleiki (is) m, harka (is) f
• Latin: austēritās (la) f

• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: strenghet (nb) m

• Portuguese: austeridade (pt) f
• Romanian: austeritate (ro) f
• Russian: строгость (ru) (strógost') f, суровость (ru) (suróvost') f
• Serbo-Croatian: surovost (sh), oporost (sh)
• Spanish: austeridad (es) f

sourness and harshness to the taste

• Albanian: austerity (sq)
• Bulgarian: стипчивост (bg) (stipčivost)
• Latin: austēritās (la) f

• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: stramhet (nb) m

• Serbo-Croatian: oporost (sh), oštrina (sh)

policy of deficit-cutting, lower spending

• Swedish: åtstramning (sv) c, åtstramningspolitik (sv) c, svångremspolitik (sv) c

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.

Translations to be checked

• French: austérité f
• Indonesian: talangan
• Polish: niedostatek, prostota, surowość

References

• austerity in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913