Faith & RitualGreek → English
Hermit
/ˈhɜːrmɪt/noun
Someone who lives alone, withdrawn from society, often for religious reasons.
The Greek roots
ἔρημος
érēmos
deserted, empty
-ίτης
-ítēs
one belonging to
Literally: “one of the desert”
The story of the word
ἔρημος meant empty of people, so an ἐρημίτης was a man who had gone out to the empty place. The h at the front is an accident of Latin and French spelling with no business being there, which is why the older English eremite looks stranger while being more correct. The first ones were Egyptian, third-century Christians who walked into the desert to be alone and were promptly followed by admirers.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Late Latin → Old French → English
- First recorded
- around 1200
Same family
eremitehermitageeremitic
In a sentence
He is not a hermit, he just stopped answering the phone.