austero

Forms

austero (feminine austera, masculine plural austeros, feminine plural austeras)^[1] Machado notes the 16th-century spelling abstero.^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin austērus (“harsh, sour; severe”), a learned word.^[3][4][2][1] The Latin adjective is from Ancient Greek αὐστηρός (austērós), which was said of a harsh, dry or bitter taste, of water and wine, and also of a severe person or style.^[3][1][5] The Greek word belongs with αὖος (aûos, “dry”) and the verb αὕω (haúō, “to dry”).^[1][5] Nascentes accordingly glosses the Greek word as “dried up”.^[6]

The same Latin word is Spanish austero, first recorded in 1555.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss, Cunha and Machado date the word to Os Lusíadas (1572), where Camões calls Actaeon tam austero in the hunt.^[3][4][2] There it already means “harsh, severe”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

In Latin the word was first used of taste: sour, bitter, harsh.^[8][9] Portuguese took it in the moral sense;^[10][11] Feijó (1734) glosses it simply as “severe”, and Morais (1789) as “practising austerities”.^[10][11] Morais (1813) adds the Latin sense of taste, sabor austero “an excessively sharp taste”, and speaks of an austere life, rule, discipline and clothing.^[12] Vieira records technical uses in chemistry, for the highest degree of acerbity, and in the fine arts, for a character that excludes the pleasing and graceful.^[13] Modern dictionaries add “plain, without ornament” and “dark, sombre”, and Michaelis marks the sense of taste as obsolete.^[14][15][16]

Timeline

• 1572 – tam austero in Os Lusíadas.^[3][2]
• 1734 – Feijó glosses it as sevéro.^[10]
• 1755 – Folqman gives vida austera “a hard life”.^[17]
• 1789 – Morais defines it as “practising austerities”.^[11]
• 1813 – Morais adds sabor austero for a sharp taste.^[12]
• 1871 – Vieira records the senses in chemistry and the fine arts.^[13]

Meanings

Adjective

1. stern, severe; strict in character, opinions or habits, with oneself and others.^[3][14][1]
2. Rigid, unbending, allowing no exceptions.^[3][18]
3. Grave, serious, formal.^[3][14]
4. Hard, demanding great effort; painful to the senses.^[3][14]
5. Harsh, curt in manner or tone.^[14][15]
6. austere, plain; without ornament or luxury.^[15][16][1]
7. Dark, sombre.^[14][16]
8. (obsolete) Of taste: sharp, astringent.^[14][16]

Word family

• austeramente
• austeridade

Related words

• Latin austerus
• Spanish austero

Usage notes

The stressed vowel is open, /ɛ/.^[3][1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Machado, José Pedro (1987), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., 5 vols., Lisboa: Livros Horizonte, p. s.v. austero
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. austero
4. ^ a b Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. austero
5. ^ a b Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. αὐστηρός
6. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. austero
7. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. austero
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. austērus
9. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. austērus
10. ^ a b c Feijó, João de Morais Madureira (1734), Orthographia, ou Arte de escrever, e pronunciar com acerto a lingua portugueza, Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. austero
11. ^ a b c Silva, António de Morais (1789), Diccionario da lingua portugueza composto pelo padre D. Rafael Bluteau, reformado, e accrescentado, 2 vols., Lisboa: Simão Thaddeo Ferreira, p. 1, 151
12. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 1, 233
13. ^ a b Vieira, Frei Domingos (1871–1874), Grande Diccionario Portuguez ou Thesouro da lingua portugueza, 5 vols., Porto: Ernesto Chardron e Bartholomeu H. de Moraes, p. 1, 664
14. ^ a b c d e f g Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. austero
15. ^ a b c Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 1111
16. ^ a b c d Michaelis: Moderno Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, São Paulo: Melhoramentos (online as Michaelis Dicionário Brasileiro da Língua Portuguesa, https://michaelis.uol.com.br), p. s.v. austero
17. ^ Folqman, Carlos (1755), Diccionario portuguez, e latino, Lisboa: Régia Officina Silviana (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. austero
18. ^ Aulete, Francisco Júlio Caldas, Dicionário contemporâneo da língua portuguesa (1st ed. 1881), online as Aulete Digital, Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, https://aulete.com.br, p. s.v. austero