austerity
economic living, low cost and low comfort
TRANSLATION
austerity = die Strenge, die Knappheit, die Sparsamkeit --- GOOGLE INDEX austerity: approximately 16,500,000 Google hits
STATISTICS
IN THE PRESS
Mr Shaeuble suggested the recent downgrade of Italy's credit rating by Standard and Poor's may encourage it to speed up its own AUSTERITY measures to reassure markets.
(BBC News)
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Americans have always been able to handle AUSTERITY and even adversity. Prosperity is what is doing us in.
- American author and journalist James Reston
(BBC News)
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Americans have always been able to handle AUSTERITY and even adversity. Prosperity is what is doing us in.
- American author and journalist James Reston
Did you
know?
austerity
noun
- the condition or policy of living without things that are not necessary and without comfort, with limited money or goods, or a practice, habit or experience that is typical of this
(Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary)
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Ever since the beginning of the global financial crisis in the fall of 2007, the word "austerity" seems to crop up on a daily basis in the broadcast and print media. Merriam-Webster even selected it as its 2010 Word of the Year, primarily because it registered a record number of searches in the online dictionary with more than 250,000.
The word first became well known during World War II when the British government initiated so-called rationing. It was in essence an austerity program. Because basic commodities were in short supply, the government rationed - or controlled - things such as petrol and especially food. But other items were also affected. Books were printed to a strict "wartime economy standard" for instance. This meant with thinner paper, narrower margins and cheaper binding.
And everyone was impacted, even royalty. Early in the war, British fashion designer and "Royal Dressmaker" Norman Hartnell was summoned to discuss the Queen's wartime costume. The government had rules for "austerity dressing" that included a limited number of seams per dress, narrow collars and belts and a minimum of frills.
Embroidery was forbidden, so Hartnell hand-painted garlands of lilac on one satin gown which, with jewels, became the Queen's standard uniform at diplomatic parties.
Etymology: Austerity stems from the adjective "austere," which comes from the Latin "austerus" and Greek "austeros," meaning dry, sour, harsh (as in the taste of fruits and wine). The figurative sense of "severe self-discipline" was first recorded in the 16th century and the additional meaning of "severe simplicity" (doing without material things) in the late 19th century.
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SYNONYMS
hardness, harshness, simplicity, strictness, stringency
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SMUGGLE OWAD into today's conversation
"The financial crisis is forcing everyone to consider austerity measures."
noun
- the condition or policy of living without things that are not necessary and without comfort, with limited money or goods, or a practice, habit or experience that is typical of this
(Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary)
---
Ever since the beginning of the global financial crisis in the fall of 2007, the word "austerity" seems to crop up on a daily basis in the broadcast and print media. Merriam-Webster even selected it as its 2010 Word of the Year, primarily because it registered a record number of searches in the online dictionary with more than 250,000.
The word first became well known during World War II when the British government initiated so-called rationing. It was in essence an austerity program. Because basic commodities were in short supply, the government rationed - or controlled - things such as petrol and especially food. But other items were also affected. Books were printed to a strict "wartime economy standard" for instance. This meant with thinner paper, narrower margins and cheaper binding.
And everyone was impacted, even royalty. Early in the war, British fashion designer and "Royal Dressmaker" Norman Hartnell was summoned to discuss the Queen's wartime costume. The government had rules for "austerity dressing" that included a limited number of seams per dress, narrow collars and belts and a minimum of frills.
Embroidery was forbidden, so Hartnell hand-painted garlands of lilac on one satin gown which, with jewels, became the Queen's standard uniform at diplomatic parties.
Etymology: Austerity stems from the adjective "austere," which comes from the Latin "austerus" and Greek "austeros," meaning dry, sour, harsh (as in the taste of fruits and wine). The figurative sense of "severe self-discipline" was first recorded in the 16th century and the additional meaning of "severe simplicity" (doing without material things) in the late 19th century.
---
SYNONYMS
hardness, harshness, simplicity, strictness, stringency
---
SMUGGLE OWAD into today's conversation
"The financial crisis is forcing everyone to consider austerity measures."
