austere

austere [-r] adj

OFr < L. < Gk 'making the tongue dry and rough'.

  1. Severe; strict; abstinent; self-disciplined; restrained; stringently moral.
  2. Bleak; stark; bare; frugal; temperate; abstemious; [fig.] cold; deathly.

austere adv

see austere, adj.

  1. Coolly; coldly; [fig.] gravely; seriously; soberly; [word play; see Webster's “auster, n. The south wind”] into winter; to the south.