ascetic
/əˈsɛtɪk
/adjective
Characterized by severe self-discipline and abstention from all forms of indulgence, typically for religious reasons: an ascetic life of prayer, fasting, and manual labour...
- Sufism emphasises the more mystical and ascetic aspects of the religion.
- Yet the texts are firmly part of the later medieval world: the first two come from the writings of visionary women mystics and the last from a rigorously ascetic monastic theologian.
- True spirituality, or godliness, is found in everyday social relationships as well as in prayer, learning, or ascetic practices.
Synonyms
austere, self-denying, abstinent, abstemious, non-indulgent, self-disciplined, frugal, simple, rigorous, strict, severe, hair-shirt, spartan, monastic, monkish, nunlike;
reclusive, solitary, cloistered, eremitic, anchoritic, hermitic;
celibate, continent, chaste, puritanical, self-abnegating, other-worldly, mortified
noun
A person who follows an ascetic life.The composition of hymns of the Rig-Veda was done by Hindu recluses, ascetics, Rishis and Sages rooted in the realities of life inside the society....
- These are the qualities of Siva, the lord of yogis and ascetics.
- The major sect of Udasin ascetics was originally not Shaiva - nor even Hindu - but belonged to the Sikh religion.
Synonyms
abstainer, recluse, hermit, solitary, anchorite, anchoress, desert saint, celibate, puritan, nun, monk;
Islam fakir, Sufi, dervish;
Hinduism yogi, rishi, sannyasi;
in India sadhu, muni;
in Japan hikikomori
rare gymnosophist, marabout, santon, eremite, stylite, pillar saint, pillar hermit, pillarist, aerialist, cenobite
Derivatives
ascetically
/ adverb ...- She had lived ascetically to the point where she destroyed her fragile mental and physical health.
- Resigning his see to write, preach, and travel, he lived ascetically in London.
- Are all men welcome to go there only if they live as monks, sharing the humility and simple lives of the inhabitants, eating, dressing, and living ascetically and piously, etc.?
Origin
Mid 17th century: from medieval Latin asceticus or Greek askētikos, from askētēs 'monk', from askein 'to exercise'.
Suggestive of severe self-discipline and abstention from indulgence, ascetic is from Greek askētikos. The base is askētēs ‘monk’.