This week’s theme
Words to describe people

This week’s words
stolid
ascetic
dour
intractable
lissom

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A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(uh-SET-ik)

MEANING:

adjective: Practicing severe self-discipline or self-denial.
noun: One who practices severe self-discipline or self-denial.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Greek askesis (exercise or training), from askein (to exercise or work). Earliest documented use: 1646.

USAGE:

“This exhibition of roughly 50 paintings lays out the magpie path that took Mondrian from stolid burgher to ascetic modernist.”
Michael Prodger; From Windmills to Modernism; New Statesman (London, UK); May 30, 2014.

See more usage examples of ascetic in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: