Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. The quality of being austere.
- n. Severe and rigid economy: wartime austerity.
- n. An austere habit or practice.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. Harshness or astringency of taste.
- n. Severity of manner, life, etc.; rigor; strictness; harshness of treatment or demeanor.
- n. Severe or rigorous simplicity; absence of adornment or luxury.
- n. Severe or ascetic practices: chiefly in the plural: as, the austerities of the Flagellants.
- n. Synonyms Self-sacrifice, Asceticism, etc. (see self-denial); sternness, harshness. See comparison under austere.
Wiktionary
- n. Severity of manners or life; extreme rigor or strictness; harsh discipline.
- n. Freedom from adornment; plainness; severe simplicity.
- n. economics A policy of deficit-cutting, lower spending, and a reduction in the amount of benefits and public services provided.
- n. obsolete Sourness and harshness to the taste.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. obsolete Sourness and harshness to the taste.
- n. Severity of manners or life; extreme rigor or strictness; harsh discipline.
- n. Plainness; freedom from adornment; severe simplicity.
WordNet 3.0
- n. the trait of great self-denial (especially refraining from worldly pleasures)
Etymologies
- From Old French austerite ("harshness, severity"), from Latin austēritās ("harshness, sourness"). See austere. (Wiktionary)
Examples
“I consider myself well-informed, but I have no idea what the term 'austerity economics' really means.”
The Huffington Post: Richard (RJ) Eskow: Austerity for Dummies: The 3-Minute Guide to a Bad Idea
“Canada's finance minister doesn't believe the term austerity fits for his government's upcoming budget.”
“In a country where the term "austerity" has only entered the national conversation recently and where the government's rhetoric has often been a remove from economic reality, Mr. Berlusconi's statement was notable for its tone as well as its contents.”
“In the five months I spent there earlier this year, I never heard the word austerity in political discussion.”
“Without ever mentioning the word "austerity," ministers from Sarkozy's center-right government spent the weekend defending the need for fiscal vigilance amid fears of mounting debts in Western states.”
“You've heard it over and over again -- the word "austerity," or the spending cuts the U.S. and Europe are supposed to make to get rid of the trillions in debt that governments took on before and during the financial crisis.”
“This brand of "austerity" is all the more notable because, in a sense, the advertising proved true: Compared to most of its European brethren and certainly to the U.S., the U.K. is embarking on one of the world's sharpest cutoffs from the recent deficit-spending explosion, which is likely to mean nearly a half-million public-sector job losses over the next five years.”
“And as to what they enjoy in the public sphere, well, let's just say that if you take a train out of Tokyo and compare that to a train ride from New York City, you will quickly discover just how well our fiscal austerity is working for us.”
The Huffington Post: Lynn Parramore: Japanophobia: Economic Myths in the American Media
“As these governments are defending the bankers and financiers by cutting the services and support to the working people in austerity programs, they are also cutting deficits and bailing out the banks.”
“IMF head Christine Lagarde also said: "If the United States launches a credible middle-term adjustment program i.e., stimulus spending, there is possibly room to abandon the short-term austerity measures and to introduce some measures to drive growth.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘austerity’.
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EU Buzz - ALL words and expressions
A combined list of
1. EU Buzz - single words
2. EU Buzz - collocations
3. EU Buzz - the 100 most active
collocation constituentsabsorption capacity, absorption rate, acceding country, accession candidate, accession countries, accession country, accession criteria, accession cycle, accession negotia..., accession partner..., accession priorities, accession treaty and 2650 more...
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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January 2012
bloviate, pastiche, apparat, facile, paroxysm, pique, bedfellow, pedigree, tutelage, protege, protégé, retroactive and 196 more...
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EU Buzz - single words (1+2+3)
1. Strictly EU terms with special European meaning used only in the EU
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2. Keywords central to the understanding of the EU (people working for the EU are usually able to give thematic...acceleration, action, additionality, administrator, agenda, agricultural, agri-environmental, agriflation, agri-food, applicant, approach, assent and 1325 more...
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List of Impressive Dissertation Words
Extraordinary words that Johnston and Shea might try to use while writing their dissertations.
egress, limn, effluvium, asynchronous, imbibe, opine, cognoscente, gnosis, inchoate, cathect, austerity, prescient and 1 more...
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In the News
Words from politics, news, and business
sedition, juridical, feckless, austerity, debenture, sovereign, subterfuge, amicus, obfuscate, transparency, usurp, paradox and 26 more...
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solutions
one word (preferably / not a must). terms that solved, help solve or theoretically will solve the world's problems (past, present, future).
these can be general, umbrella terms or...veganism, neurotechnology, biotechnology, nanotechnology, globalism, sustainability, laws, ecology, education, immunization, switchgrass, Esperanto and 72 more...
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A Refined Lexicon
ambivalence, ambivalent, equivocal, equivocation, equivocate, prevaricate, prevarication, quietude, quiescent, quiescence, vanquish, pluviosity and 137 more...
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Favorite Words
pablum, maundy, histrionic, adamant, ascribe, verbiage, insouciant, erudite, gregarious, superfluous, banal, obdurate and 280 more...
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Personal Vocabulary List
All my favourite words that I come across!
veritable, incongruence, rigamorole, letcherous, revolting, repulsive, reputrid, rapatious, forays, guise, placate, paradigm and 1162 more...
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addendumb's Words
fey, cockshut, redact, beatific, melange, arcanum, rarefied, dissemble, capitulation, detritus, ennui, anodyne and 381 more...
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Week 1, Day 1
ignominy, marquee, deter, chariot, stern, perfidy, treacherous, insolent, presumptuous, banish, dubious, livid and 133 more...
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List Erine
cool mint antiseptic
shalom, cattywampus, bourgeoisie, aerophile, traverse, grotto, epicurean, ex cathedra, nautilus, epitaph, lathe, continuum and 753 more...
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Aequoria's list
affect, deleterious, nuance, pliant, verbatim, pertinent, latter, municipality, provincial, voyeuristic, circumlocution, wane and 798 more...
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Vocab++
Words as I learn them.
fetid, mezzanine, hiatus, austerity, subliminal, resplendent, implacable, impugn, debase, exiguous, cirque, holster and 2538 more...
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Daily
Daily Vocab List
lull, pious, lurid, objurgate, insurgent, lewd, patio, onus, lampoon, geisha, larceny, maim and 206 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for austerity.
sionnach
The Gaels were never big fans of austerity measures... Feb 22, 2009
bilby "Protesters estimated to number about 100,000 have taken part in a protest in the Irish capital, Dublin, over government austerity measures. They were especially unhappy about plans to introduce a pension levy on public sector workers and freeze their pay."
- BBC, Thousands protest in Dublin over economy, abc.net.au, 22 Feb 2009. Feb 22, 2009