aesthetic

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See also: æsthetic

English

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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From German Ästhetik or French esthétique, both from New Latin aesthēticus, itself borrowed from Ancient Greek αἰσθητικός (aisthētikós, “of sense perception”), from αἰσθάνομαι (aisthánomai, “I feel”); analysable as aesthe(sis) +‎ -tic.

Cognates include Proto-Germanic *awiz (“obvious”), Sanskrit आविस् (āvís, “manifestly, evidently”) and Latin audiō.

Pronunciation

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Adjective

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aesthetic (comparative more aesthetic, superlative most aesthetic)

  1. Concerned with beauty, artistic effect, or appearance.
    Coordinate term: cosmetic
    It works well enough, but the shabby exterior offends his aesthetic sensibilities.
    • 1881, W. S. Gilbert, Patience, act I:
      If you're anxious for to shine in the high aesthetic line as a man of culture rare,
      You must get up all the germs of the transcendental terms, and plant them everywhere.
    • 1941 August, C. Hamilton Ellis, “The English Station”, in Railway Magazine, page 358:
      If Euston is not typically English, St. Pancras is. Its façade is a nightmare of improbable Gothic. It is fairly plastered with the aesthetic ideals of 1868, and the only beautiful thing about it is Barlow's roof. It is haunted by the stuffier kind of ghost. Yet there is something about the ordered whole of St. Pancras that would make demolition a terrible pity.
    • 2011, Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem: The Biography – A History of the Middle East, page 268:
      But he was also a natural chronicler: one senses that, even as his schemes collapsed, this aesthetic Arab Quixote knew the stories would make great material for his witty, sharp, melancholic writings.
  2. (rarely proscribed) Beautiful or appealing to one's sense of beauty or art.
    Synonyms: aesthetical, tasteful
    Antonyms: inaesthetic, unaesthetic
    The design of the lobby cannot be considered particularly aesthetic.
    • 2022 January 12, Paul Bigland, “Fab Four: the nation's finest stations: Wakefield Kirkgate”, in RAIL, number 948, page 28:
      The station was rebuilt yet again by British Rail in 1967, when large chunks of the 19th century station were demolished and replaced with 'modern' buildings that were less than aesthetic.

Derived terms

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Translations

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Noun

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aesthetic (plural aesthetics)

  1. The study of art or beauty.
  2. That which appeals to the senses.
  3. The artistic motifs defining a collection of things, especially works of art; more broadly, their aura or “vibe”.
    Her most recent works have this quirky, nonchalant ’90s teen culture–inspired aesthetic.
    I really like the goth aesthetic you've got going there.

Derived terms

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Translations

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Further reading

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  • "aesthetic" in Raymond Williams, Keywords (revised), 1983, Fontana Press, page 31.

Anagrams

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