The Only Use of
aesthetic
in
The Great Gatsby
- ...for a transitory enchanted moment man must have held his breath in the presence of this continent, compelled into an aesthetic contemplation he neither understood nor desired...
p. 180.5aesthetic = referring to one's sense of what is beautifulunconventional spelling: This is the British spelling. Americans spell it esthetic.
Definitions:
-
(1)
(aesthetic) related to beauty or good taste -- often referring to one's appreciation of beauty or one's sense of what is beautiful
or:
beautiful or tasteful -
(2)
(meaning too rare to warrant focus) meaning too rare to warrant focus:
In Philosophy, "aesthetics" is the study of theories of what is beautiful.