Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun One who cultivates an unusually high sensitivity to beauty, as in art or nature.
  • noun One whose pursuit and admiration of beauty is regarded as excessive or affected.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun Recent One who makes much or overmuch of æsthetics.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Someone who cultivates an unusually high sensitivity to beauty, as in art or nature.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun one who professes great sensitivity to the beauty of art and nature

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Back-formation from aesthetic.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Ancient Greek αἰσθητής ("one who perceives").

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Examples

  • ‡ The term aesthete is sometimes used negatively to describe someone whose pursuit of beauty is excessive or appears phony.

    aesthetics 2002

  • The absolute disdain for politics of the aesthete is in itself a political choice.

    Politics and Literature 2007

  • The aesthete from the East has come out west and cut Ansel Adams down to size.

    Ansel Adams at 100 2002

  • The aesthete from the East has come out west and cut Ansel Adams down to size.

    Ansel Adams at 100 2002

  • Yes, aesthete, that is why I bought that up to dpaitsel, penguin2

    2012 Presidential Elections: Scott Brown, Ron Paul & The CPAC Straw Poll | RedState 2010

  • The prime motivation for the aesthete is the transformation of the boring into the interesting.

    Søren Kierkegaard McDonald, William 2009

  • When Brophy first met Sir Anthony, at dinner among the sailors and art students "probably both," she suggested of his Courtauld Institute apartment, not even the British security service knew that the aesthete was their betrayer.

    Peter Stothard - Times Online - WBLG: 2009

  • When Brophy first met Sir Anthony, at dinner among the sailors and art students "probably both," she suggested of his Courtauld Institute apartment, not even the British security service knew that the aesthete was their betrayer.

    Hi-pri spy-guy here 2009

  • The service would have been pronounced by any modern aesthetic religionist -- or religious aesthete, which is it?

    Sylvie and Bruno Lewis Carroll 1865

  • I'm perfectly willing to accept the label of "aesthete," although I know it's meant to be a term of horrible abuse.

    Politics and Literature 2007

Comments

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  • one who professes great sensitivity to the beauty of art and nature

    A true aesthete, Marty would spend hours at the Guggenheim Museum, staring at the same Picasso.

    October 12, 2016