Faith & RitualGreek → English
Monastery
/ˈmɑːnəstɛri/noun
A building where a community of monks or nuns lives under a rule.
The Greek roots
μοναστήριον
monastḗrion
hermit's dwelling
Literally: “place for living alone”
Follow a root:μοναστήριον1 word
The story of the word
The Greek noun names a house for a μοναστής, someone living alone, so it still means a home for solitaries even when two hundred of them are inside. The word entered English twice. Church Latin gave monastery; an earlier Germanic borrowing of the same Greek noun wore down to minster, which is why York Minster and Westminster are, etymologically, monasteries.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Late Latin → Old French → English
- First recorded
- 15th century
The same roots elsewhere
Other languages reached for exactly the same Greek pieces.
Same family
minstermonkmonasticmonopoly
In a sentence
The monastery keeps bees and sells the honey at the gate.