Austerity

Etymology: Greek austēros → Latin austerus → Old French austerité → English austerity

The Greek word austēros described something harsh and dry, like the taste of unripe fruit or astringent wine.¹ Through Latin austerus and Old French austerité, the word entered English in the fourteenth century as a description of severe self-discipline, often in a monastic context.

The economic meaning appeared in the mid-twentieth century. During and after World War II, austerity described government policies of rationing and restricted spending imposed on civilian populations.²

The word gained renewed global prominence after the 2008 financial crisis. European governments, particularly Greece, Spain, Portugal, and Ireland, implemented austerity programs that cut public spending, raised taxes, and reduced welfare benefits as conditions for receiving bailout loans from international creditors.³

The economist Mark Blyth argued in Austerity: The History of a Dangerous Idea (2013) that the policy had consistently failed to produce the economic recovery its proponents promised. Blyth traced the intellectual origins to classical liberal economists who believed government spending crowded out private investment.⁴

In Greece, GDP fell by approximately twenty-five percent between 2008 and 2013 under austerity measures. Youth unemployment exceeded fifty percent.⁵ A word that began with the taste of unripe fruit came to describe the experience of an entire generation.

Timeline

• 14th century, Austerity entered English describing severe self-discipline.
• 1940s, Governments used austerity to describe wartime rationing and restricted spending.
• 2008, The global financial crisis triggered a new wave of austerity programs across Europe.
• 2013, Greek GDP had fallen roughly twenty-five percent under austerity, with youth unemployment exceeding fifty percent.

Endnotes

1. Harper, Douglas, "Etymology of austerity," Online Etymology Dictionary.
2. Oxford English Dictionary, s.v. "austerity."
3. Mark Blyth, Austerity: The History of a Dangerous Idea (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013).
4. Blyth, Austerity.
5. OECD, Economic Surveys: Greece (Paris: OECD Publishing, 2013).