Etymology

austerity

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Today it means: Severity of manners or life; extreme rigor or strictness; harsh discipline. Full definition →

Ancient Greek αὐστηρότης
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The story

  1. Ancient Greek · derived fromαὐστηρότης“bitter, harsh”
  2. English todayausterity

From Ancient Greek αὐστηρότης (austērótēs, “bitter, harsh”). Morphologically austere + -ity.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.