hermit
[hur-mit]
- a person who has withdrawn to a solitary place for a life of religious seclusion.
- any person living in seclusion; recluse.
- Zoology. an animal of solitary habits.
- Ornithology. any of numerous hummingbirds of the genera Glaucis and Phaethornis, having curved bills and dull-colored rather than iridescent plumage.
- a spiced molasses cookie often containing raisins or nuts.
- Obsolete. a beadsman.
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Origin of hermit
1175–1225; Middle English ermite, hermite, heremite < Old French < Late Latin erēmīta < Greek erēmītḗs living in a desert, equivalent to erḗm(ia) desert (derivative of erêmos desolate) + -ītēs -ite1
Synonyms
See more synonyms for hermit on Thesaurus.com1. eremite, monastic, anchorite, cenobite.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for hermit
Contemporary Examples
The FBI and the President may claim that the Hermit Kingdom is to blame for the most high-profile network breach in forever.
How ironic that the Hermit Kingdom is taking the blame for our first real look inside a clique that not even Vice dares penetrate.
Someone called him a hermit crab lurking in the halls of the United Nations.
The Hermit Kingdom has opened its embassy doors for an exhibit highlighting the work of six artists from its state-run studio.
Considering the grand tradition of un-predictability in the Hermit Kingdom, there are countless other possibilities.
Historical Examples
So he became again a hermit, as in the early days at Brienne school.
The Boy Life of NapoleonEugenie Foa
"I prefer Beattie's Hermit to all other hermits," said Leonora.
Tales And Novels, Volume 8 (of 10)Maria Edgeworth
"It's lonesome enough for any sort of a hermit," said Fenn, as he paused and looked about him.
Frank Roscoe's SecretAllen Chapman
His cabin is multiplied into a hamlet, and his hermit life is gone.
So seven years passed in the Monastery and thirteen in his hermit's cell.
Father SergiusLeo Tolstoy
hermit
- one of the early Christian recluses
- any person living in solitude
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Word Origin
C13: from Old French hermite, from Late Latin erēmīta, from Greek erēmitēs living in the desert, from erēmia desert, from erēmos lonely
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for hermit
n.
early 12c., "religious recluse," from Old French (h)eremite, from Late Latin ermita, from Greek eremites, literally "person of the desert," from eremia "desert, solitude," from eremos "uninhabited, empty, desolate, bereft," from PIE *ere- (2) "to separate" (cf. Latin rete "net," Lithuanian retis "sieve"). Transferred sense of "person living in solitude" is from 1799. The hermit crab (1735) was so called for its solitary habits.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper