Severe, strict, or severe in manner or appearance; practicing strict self-discipline or rejecting comfort and luxury.
From Old French 'autere' and Latin 'austerus,' derived from Greek 'austeros' (dry, harsh). The word originally described a harsh or rough quality and evolved to mean morally or aesthetically severe.
An 'autere' person is the opposite of someone seeking pleasure—think of monks in stone cells or ancient Stoic philosophers who saw comfort as morally dangerous, and that's the attitude this word captures.
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