aesthete

[es-theet or, esp. British, ees-] /ˈɛs θit or, esp. British, ˈis-/
noun
1.
a person who has or professes to have refined sensitivity toward the beauties of art or nature.
2.
a person who affects great love of art, music, poetry, etc., and indifference to practical matters.
Also, esthete.
Origin
1880-85; < Greek aisthētḗs one who perceives, equivalent to aisthē- (variant stem of aisthánesthai to perceive) + -tēs noun suffix denoting agent
Related forms
hyperaesthete, noun
Synonyms
1. connoisseur. 2. dilettante.
Examples from the web for aesthete
  • He combines an aesthete's sensibility with, even after his road accident, a swagman's build and vigour.
  • He's an aesthete, an artist; driven to make a dent in the universe.
  • Critics of modern poetry divide into two categories: aesthetes and moralists.
  • At prep school and Princeton he shone more as a bookish aesthete than a scholar.
  • He is a complicated man: a rustic and an auteur, a ruffian and an aesthete.
  • The series offers itself as a summer antidote for the overheated aesthete.
  • He is at once a gabby, wide-eyed enthusiast and an epigram-spouting aesthete.
  • He was not a wildman, but a bespectacled, nicely tailored aesthete.
  • He was part anthropologist, part yearbook photographer, part aesthete.
British Dictionary definitions for aesthete

aesthete

/ˈiːsθiːt/
noun
1.
a person who has or who affects a highly developed appreciation of beauty, esp in poetry and the visual arts
Word Origin
C19: back formation from aesthetics
Word Origin and History for aesthete
n.

1878, in vogue 1881, from Greek aisthetes "one who perceives," from stem of aisthanesthai "to perceive, to feel" (see aesthetic).

I want to be an aesthete,
And with the aesthetes stand;
A sunflower on my forehead,
And a lily in my hand.

["Puck," Oct. 5, 1881]