Stars and Stripes: 'Tis A Gift To Be Simple: Words For National Simplicity Day, July 12

The mathematician-philosopher Alfred North Whitehead famously said "Seek simplicity, and distrust it." Simply put, this list provides the vocabulary to describe anything from an easy job to an elegantly minimal interior design.
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. austere
    severely simple
    It was so plain and austere, very different from most West Side houses, with their gaudy furniture and show-off decorations. A Wish in the Dark
    There's simple, and then there's austere: something stripped of decoration or any hint of luxury, like a room with just a mattress on the floor and bare walls. Not a prison cell, though: austere doesn't connote punishment, but either hard times or a conscious choice to make do with little.
  2. ease
    freedom from difficulty or hardship or effort
    I like the way he moves, kind of swaying along like a branch in the breeze, at ease in the world. The Queen of Water
    Ease comes from the Old French aise, meaning "opportunity" or "freedom." The notion of freedom carried over into English, specifically freedom from pain, discomfort, or difficulty. We also use the opposite French term, malaise, as a synonym for unease: a feeling of discomfort or lack of well-being.
  3. elementary
    easy and not involved or complicated
    The explanation of how the tricks are worked is too complicated to explain in detail here, and two fairly elementary examples should suffice. Cheaper by the Dozen
    Elements are the building blocks of the universe. As such, they're the basis for everything we see and do. So something elementary is foundational, or entry-level: basic.
  4. facile
    arrived at without due care or effort; lacking depth
    It’s easy to conclude that Beat culture, like other countercultures that followed, has been co-opted by a mercenary society — easy and a bit facile. New York Times
    The Latin facilis, meaning "easy," became the French facile. In English, though, it has a negative meaning, referring to something done quickly or carelessly.
  5. humble
    marked by meekness or modesty; not arrogant or prideful
    Sometimes the planters wanted nothing more than to make a humble living, and then there were men and women who wanted to own the world, as if it were a matter of the proper acreage. The Underground Railroad: A Novel
    Humus is Latin for "ground" or "earth," and we still use it in English to refer to a particular type of nutrient-rich soil. Based on that root, humilem means "low," "lowly," or "insignificant;" it's where we get humiliate. Humble comes from the same source, and refers to a person who is by nature meek and modest, or one who has been brought down by shame, or a lifestyle or abode that lacks luxury of any sort.
  6. modest
    limited in size or scope
    Of one thing he was certain: The feast-day banquets in the palace of the King could never better the modest meal before him, for he had earned it. A Single Shard
    A number of the words on this list can be applied to people as well as things, ideas, or spaces. Modest comes from the Latin modestus, meaning "unassuming," "reserved," or "well-behaved," and it still carries those meanings when applied to a person. If you're talking about a budget, though, or an apartment, then modest describes a fairly low number or a small, functional dwelling.
  7. natural
    unprocessed or manufactured using simple processes
    The idea had come after Terryl had suggested putting earthworms in the kitchen in a big box to help compost in a natural and effective way. A Deadly Wandering: A Mystery, a Landmark Investigation, and the Astonishing Science of Attention in the Digital Age
  8. plain
    simple
    He was dressed in this plain white T-shirt and gray sweats, but he still managed to look heart-stoppingly perfect somehow. From Twinkle, with Love
    Plain comes from the Latin planum, meaning a flat surface, which is why the huge grasslands of the Midwest are called the Great Plains. Something unadorned, unremarkable, or featureless is plain.
  9. purity
    being undiluted or unmixed with extraneous material
    The day was cold enough to make his breath visible, and he wondered for a moment at the purity and whiteness of his own breath among the dirty, gray explosions surrounding him. Sula
    Like natural, pure refers to things being at their best in their simplest state: the way they occur in nature.
  10. simple
    having few parts; not complex or complicated or involved
    The actual nature of the genetic code, it turns out, is astoundingly simple: there’s just one molecule that carries our hereditary information and just one code. The Gene
    In Latin, simplex means "alone," "plain," or "basic." That became simple in French, which English borrowed.
  11. simplicity
    the quality of being uncomplicated
    But its very simplicity and the great ease which it lent to all computations put our arithmetic in the first rank of useful inventions. Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea
  12. simplistic
    characterized by extreme and misleading lack of complexity
    Because the hearing was kept private, like all proceedings in family court, the news stories could continue to be sensational and simplistic, easy arguments for one side or the other. Little Fires Everywhere
    What a difference a suffix makes! Where simple and simplicity both usually have positive connotations, simplistic refers to something that's so dumbed down or incomplete that it's useless. It's quite similar to facile, seen above.
  13. spare
    lacking embellishment or ornamentation
    A beautiful theory will be simple, compact, and spare; it will give a sense of completeness and often an eerie sense of symmetry. Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea
    Like austere, above, spare in this sense refers to something — often an interior — with few furnishings or decorations. So a spare room can mean one of two things: either a guest bedroom, where spare means "extra," or a lightly furnished and minimally decorated space.
  14. spartan
    marked by simplicity, frugality, or self-denial
    She looked into a spartan bedroom with a neatly made bed, a cross-stitch with a Bible verse above the bed, a Bible on the nightstand, and almost nothing else. The Serpent King
    Sparta is a city in Greece. Spartan warriors were famous for their toughness and ability to make do with very little. So a life defined by discipline and a lack of luxury or comfort can be called spartan, as can a living space like the one described up top in the note for austere.
Created on Fri Jun 19 15:12:00 EDT 2020 (updated Thu May 11 11:30:37 EDT 2023)

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