hermit

noun
/ˈhɝmɪt/US/ˈhɜːmɪt/UK

Etymology

From Middle English hermite, heremite, eremite, from Old French eremite, from Ecclesiastical Latin, Late Latin eremita, from Ancient Greek ἐρημίτης (erēmítēs, “person of the desert”) from ἐρημία (erēmía, “desert, solitude”), from ἔρημος (érēmos) or ἐρῆμος (erêmos, “uninhabited”) plus -ίτης (-ítēs, “one connected to, a member of”). Doublet of eremite. Displaced native Old English ānsetla.

  1. derived from ἐρημίτης
  2. derived from eremita
  3. derived from eremite
  4. inherited from hermite

Definitions

  1. A religious recluse

    A religious recluse; someone who lives alone for religious reasons; an eremite.

  2. A recluse

    A recluse; someone who lives alone and shuns human companionship.

    • Solitary the thrush, / The hermit withdrawn to himself, avoiding the settlements, / Sings by himself a song.
    • Millie told him he sounded like some batty hermit who lived in a cave.
  3. A spiced cookie made with molasses, raisins, and nuts.

  4. + 2 more definitions
    1. A hermit crab.

      • Because hermits are decapods and do not live within their own shells, they are not considered to be true crabs.
    2. Any in the subfamily Phaethornithinae of hummingbirds.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

A definitional loop anchored at hermit. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.

01hermit02eremite03alone04solitary05recluse

A definitional loop anchored at hermit. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.

5 hops · closes at hermit

curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA