Other forms: aesthetics
Aesthetic means concerning beauty and how things look and feel. An aesthetic judgement, aesthetic appeal, purely aesthetic.
In philosophy, aesthetics is the study of beauty and taste and is one of the main branches of the subject. In ordinary use, an aesthetic has become a noun meaning a consistent look — a minimalist aesthetic — which is recent and now everywhere. Note the American spelling esthetic; and that the Greek means to do with perception rather than with beauty.
1adjectiveaestheticConcerning beauty and how things look.
“We chose the wooden table for aesthetic reasons, even though the metal one was cheaper.”
2nounconsistentA consistent look or style.
“The café has a cosy vintage aesthetic, with old lamps and mismatched chairs.”
aesthetic is a quality of beauty.
Greek aisthetikos means of sense perception, from aisthanesthai, to feel. Baumgarten narrowed it to the study of beauty in 1735, and English took it from German.
Proto-Indo-European
*h₂ew-
German
Ästhetik
English, today
aesthetic
Built from
From German Ästhetik. From German Ästhetik or French esthétique, both from New Latin aesthēticus, itself borrowed from Ancient Greek αἰσθητικός (“of sense perception”), from αἰσθάνομαι (“to feel”); analysable as aesthe(sis) + tic. Cognates include Proto-Germanic awiz (“obvious”), Sanskrit आविस् (“manifestly, evidently”) and Latin audiō.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA