Make Your Point: ASCETIC

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pronounce ASCETIC:

uh SET ick

connect this word to others:

You might find ascetic people at the gym. But not at the dessert buffet.

Ascetic people are extremely strict with themselves. They're restrained, austere, self-denying, self-ab___ting (constantly denying themselves any indulgences), and abs___ious (constantly denything themselves any harmful indulgences, like alcohol).

Can you recall those last two synonyms?

(To reveal any word with blanks, give it a click.)

definition:

The word "ascetic" traces back to a Greek one, asketēs, that means "a monk, a hermit, an athlete, or a skilled worker," and further back to askein, "to train, or to exercise."

For hundreds of years in English, we've used the word "Ascetic" to refer to certain religions and religious people, the kind that follow a strict lifestyle with very few physical pleasures. Like athletes who train rigorously, Ascetics (or sometimes lowercase "ascetics") are people who follow a highly restricted lifestyle, possibly by, say, sleeping on hard floors and consuming only bread and water.

In a looser sense, ascetic people and things are very strict or very basic, with very few physical comforts or pleasures.

grammatical bits:

Part of speech:

Both a noun ("He's an ascetic") and an adjective ("He's so ascetic").

Other forms:

The plural noun is "ascetics." And the noun for the idea or the behavior is "asceticism."

In older texts, you'll see "Ascetic" capitalized. But these days, we usually treat it as a common noun and adjective, using the lowercase, even for the stricter religious meaning. Here's an example from the Washington Post: "The Kumbh Mela... [draws] multitudes of Hindu ascetics."

how to use it:

Pick the common, serious, very formal word "ascetic" when you want to describe people who live in such a frugal, simple, or self-denying way that they remind you of nuns or monks.

You might refer to certain people as ascetics. Or might you talk about ascetic people and their ascetic habits, lifestyles, food, clothing, furnishings, etc.

examples:

"The movie begins with Nina choking down an ascetic breakfast: one grapefruit."
— Sarah Maslin Nir, New York Times, 9 January 2011

"He was... an ascetic, drinking water three times a week, wearing a hair-shirt next to his skin, and keeping the sheet intended for his burial at the foot of his bed."
— William Andrews, The Doctor in History, Literature, Folk-Lore, Etc., 1896

has this page helped you understand "ascetic"?

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Thanks for letting me know!
If you have any questions about this word, please message me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.

study it:

Explain the meaning of "ascetic" without saying "non-indulgent" or "spartan."

try it out:

In the Washington Post, Hank Stuever, a television critic, wrote:

"Except for intellectual ascetics, we all watch TV."

I'm pretty sure he was joking. But talk about what he might mean. What kind of person is an "intellectual ascetic," and why would such a person shun television? What does Stuever's comment suggest about the value of television?

before you review, play:

Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out.

Our game for this month is the Game of Venery!

Longtime readers may recognize this game from 2019, when we played with terms from James Lipton's book An Exaltation of Larks. This time, we’ll play with terms from Daniel E. Meyers's online Collective Noun Catalog.

To play, check out the two templates below, and have fun filling them in and sharing your inventions with your family. You can be as lofty, silly, or bawdy as you like. To see the way the terms actually appear in Meyers’s catalog, scroll to the bottom of the issue.

Try these today:

1. a salvo of _____

2. a/an _____ of rabbits

review this word:

1. The opposite of ASCETIC could be

A. POLYCHROMATIC: made of many colors.
B. HEDONISTIC: constantly seeking luxury and pleasure.
C. ANACHRONISTIC: out of place in time, either behind the times or inappropriately futuristic.

2. A writer for Salon praised Lorde's pop song "Royals" as "ascetic," saying it sounds _____.

A. "cute," "sweet," and "fresh"
B. "crisp," "sharp," and "minimal"
C. "gauzy," "ethereal," and "heart-pounding"

a final word:

I hope you're enjoying Make Your Point. It's made with love.

I'm Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words.

From my blog:
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From my heart: a profound thanks to the generous patrons, donors, and sponsors that make it possible for me to write these emails. If you'd like to be a patron or a donor, please click here. If you'd like to be a sponsor and include your ad in an issue, please contact me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.

A disclaimer: When I write definitions, I use plain language and stick to the words' common, useful applications. If you're interested in authoritative and multiple definitions of words, I encourage you to check a dictionary. Also, because I'm American, I stick to American English when I share words' meanings, usage, and pronunciations; these elements sometimes vary across world Englishes.

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