monastery

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English monasterie,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Late Latin monastērium (“monk's cell, monastery”),^[5][6][2][7] partly through Old French monastere,^[5][4][6] recorded in Old French from 1279.^[5] The Latin word, from the 4th century, is from Ancient Greek μοναστήριον (monastḗrion, “monk's cell, monastery”),^[5][6][3] formed with the place suffix -τήριον (-tḗrion)^[6][4][5] from μονάζω (monázō, “to live alone”),^[5][6][7][8] from μόνος (mónos, “alone”).^[5][6][8] Klein derives the noun more directly from μοναστής (monastḗs, “monk, literally living alone”).^[3] Etymonline traces the Greek adjective to Proto-Indo-European *men- (“small, isolated”).^[4] The same Latin word gave Old Occitan monestiri, Spanish monasterio and Italian monastero,^[5] and, through Old English, minster, a doublet of monastery.^[6][3][9] Middle English also had the form monaster.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

A place where a community lives under religious vows, especially a house of monks; also the community itself: before 1425, in the Rule of Saint Benet.^[5] Etymonline dates it to about 1400,^[4] and Barnhart finds monasterye about 1400.^[6]

Semantic evolution

The Greek word first meant a hermit's cell, the dwelling of one who lived alone, before it came to mean a house of monks.^[2][10] In English it was at first used for the houses of any religious order, of men or of women, but it came to be used especially of monks.^[4][5] Johnson (1755) defined it as a house of religious retirement, or convent, and noted that it was usually pronounced, and often written, monastry.^[11] The adjective monasterial is recorded from the mid 15th century.^[4]

Timeline

• 4th century – Latin monastērium and Greek monastḗrion, monk's cell, monastery.^[5]
• 1279 – Old French monastere.^[5]
• c. 1400 – Middle English monasterye.^[6][4]
• before 1425 – a house of a religious community, in the Rule of Saint Benet.^[5]
• mid 15th century – the adjective monasterial.^[4]
• 1755 – Johnson: a house of religious retirement.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. A house where a community of monks or nuns lives in seclusion under religious vows: They spent a week at a monastery in the hills.^[12][2][5]
2. The religious community living in such a house.^[5][7]

Word family

• monasterial
• double monastery

Related words

• monastic
• monasticism
• monk
• minster
• mono-

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ a b c d Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
7. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
9. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
10. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
11. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
12. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins