Word of the Day Archive
Saturday July 21, 2001

eremite \ER-uh-myt\ , noun:
A hermit, especially a religious recluse.

He is in the private cave of his freedom, an eremite, a solitary; he orders his mind as he pleases.
-- Cynthia Ozick, "Writers Domestic and Demonic", New York Times, March 25, 1984

Eremite derives from Late Latin eremita, from Greek eremites, "living in the desert," from eremia, "desert," from eremos, "lonely, solitary, desolate."

Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation for eremite

 

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