hermitage

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English hermitage, also ermitage and heremitage,^[2][3] borrowed from Old French hermitage, also ermitage,^{[4][5][6][2][7]} formed from hermite (“hermit”) and the suffix -age.^[3][7][4] The Anglo-Norman word is recorded from 1155, both for a hermit's dwelling and for a desert or wilderness.^[8] The OED compares Old Occitan ermitatge, Italian eremitaggio and Medieval Latin hermitagium.^[4] The French noun for a hermit came from Late Latin erēmīta, in Medieval Latin also herēmīta, from Ancient Greek ἐρημίτης (erēmítēs, “person of the desert”), from ἐρημία (erēmía, “desert, solitude”),^[4][6][9] from ἔρημος (érēmos, “solitary, uninhabited”).^[9][6][5] Etymonline traces the Greek adjective to Proto-Indo-European *erem- (“to rest, be quiet”).^[5] An earlier English word for the same thing was hermitorie, recorded about 1200, from Medieval Latin hermitorium.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The dwelling of a hermit: about 1290, in the South English Legendary, in the life of Becket, who goes by water to the Ermitage of Sempling-ham.^[4][2] Etymonline dates it to the late 13th century.^[5]

Semantic evolution

In Middle English the word meant a hermit's dwelling, and also figuratively a solitude of thought (about 1440) and a wilderness; it occurs in surnames and place names too.^[2] Johnson (1755) defined it as the cell or habitation of a hermit, quoting the Fairy Queen.^[10] The transferred sense, any solitary or secluded dwelling, is recorded from 1648, in Boyle;^[4][5] the condition of a hermit, a rare sense, from 1582, in a marginal note of the Rheims Version of the Bible.^[4] The word also came to mean a monastery.^[3][7] From 1680, in Shadwell, Hermitage has also been a French wine,^[4][3] named after Tain-l'Ermitage in the Rhône valley,^[3][6] from a ruin on the hill above the vineyards that was supposed to have been a hermit's cell.^[4] In South Africa Hermitage was formerly a local name for the Cinsaut grape, recorded from about 1911.^[11]

Timeline

• c. 1290 – the dwelling of a hermit.^[4][2]
• c. 1440 – figuratively, a solitude of thought.^[2]
• 1582 – the condition of a hermit (rare).^[4]
• 1648 – a solitary or secluded dwelling.^[4]
• 1680 – Hermitage, a wine from the Rhône valley.^[4][3]
• c. 1911 – in South Africa, a name for the Cinsaut grape.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. The dwelling of a hermit.^[12][3][4]
2. A secluded place to live; a retreat or hideaway: After retiring he moved to a hermitage in the hills.^[12][3][4]
3. A monastery.^[3][7]
4. (rare) The life or condition of a hermit.^[4][3][7]
5. Hermitage: a full-bodied, chiefly red wine from vineyards near Tain-l'Ermitage in the Rhône valley, or a similar wine made elsewhere.^[12][3][4]

Related words

• hermit

Usage notes

The Hermitage is the art museum in St Petersburg, first a palace built by Catherine the Great;^[12] it is named after the retreat in which the empress showed her treasures to her friends.^[13]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
9. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
11. ^ a b A Dictionary of South African English on Historical Principles, Dictionary Unit for South African English, https://dsae.co.za
12. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
13. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press