Politics & SocietyGreek → English
Spartan
/ˈspɑːrtn/adjective
Plain and severe, with no comfort or decoration.
The Greek roots
Σπάρτη
Spártē
Sparta
Literally: “of Sparta”
Follow a root:Σπάρτη1 word
The story of the word
The Spartans called themselves Λακεδαιμόνιοι, which is why English got a second adjective out of them: laconic, from Λακωνία, their region, for the habit of the very short answer. Philip II sent word that if he entered Laconia he would raze Sparta, and they replied with one syllable, If. The austerity sense in English is seventeenth-century and flattens a real society into a single trait, since Sparta also had gold, imported luxury and, by Athenian standards, alarmingly independent women.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → English
- First recorded
- 17th century
Same family
laconichelot
In a sentence
The room was spartan: a bed, a chair, one hook on the door.