means An aesthetic and lifestyle that strips things down to the bare essentials — whether in art, design, music, or how many spoons you actually keep.

from From the Latin 'minimus,' meaning 'smallest' or 'least,' the same root that gives us 'minimum' and 'minor.' The '-ism' arrived in the mid-20th century, when art critics needed a name for painters and sculptors who reduced their work to plain shapes, single colors, and stark simplicity. The word later escaped the gallery and wandered into furniture, music, and finally the empty apartments of people who decided that fewer things meant fewer worries.