seclude

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English secluden (“to shut off, keep out”),^[2][3][4][5] borrowed from Latin sēclūdō (“to shut off, confine”),^[6][3][7][5] formed from sē- (“apart”) and claudō (“to shut”),^[6][3][7] which takes the form -clūdere in compounds.^[7][4] Merriam-Webster Unabridged adds that the prefix comes from sed (“without”),^[8] and the American Heritage Dictionary refers it to Proto-Indo-European *s(w)e-.^[5] The OED compares Old French seclorre.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

To shut off, or to obstruct the access to, a thing: 1451, in Capgrave's Life of Saint Gilbert, where drink was said to be cut off from someone.^[6][2][3]

Semantic evolution

For its first centuries the word was largely a loose synonym of exclude, the OED notes.^[6] From 1498 it meant to keep a person out of a place or society, from about 1531 to debar from a privilege or from doing something, then from 1572 to banish or to expel from an office.^[6] Merriam-Webster Unabridged dates the exclusion sense to about 1533.^[8] Johnson (1755) still glossed it as both "to shut up apart" and "to exclude".^[9] The other line, close to the Latin meaning, began with shutting something off from outside influence (1598, 1601).^[6] The modern sense, withdrawing someone from public view or social contact, is recorded from 1629 in the OED,^[6] from 1628 in Barnhart, both in John Ford's The Lover's Melancholy.^[3] The word is now almost confined to this line, and the exclusion senses are obsolete.^[6][8]

Timeline

• 1451 – to shut off, to obstruct the access to a thing (obsolete by 1548).^[6][3]
• 1498 – to shut or keep out from a place or society (obsolete by 1680).^[6]
• c. 1531 – to debar from a privilege, or from doing something (obsolete by 1775).^[6]
• 1572 – to banish; to expel from an office or a society (obsolete by 1734).^[6]
• 1598 – to shut up apart, so as to keep out outside influence.^[6]
• 1601 – to screen from some external influence.^[6]
• 1629 – to remove from public view; to withdraw into solitude.^[6] Barnhart dates this to 1628, and Etymonline to the 1620s.^[3][4]

Meanings

Verb

1. To remove someone from contact with others, or to withdraw into solitude: After the scandal, the actor secluded himself on his farm.^[10][8][6]
2. To shut off or screen from view or from outside influence: A row of poplars secludes the house from the road.^[10][11][12]
3. (obsolete, 1531 to 1775) To debar someone from a privilege or dignity, or to expel from an office or membership.^[6][8][12]

Word family

• secluded
• secludedly

Related words

• seclusion
• seclusive
• exclude
• include
• conclude
• preclude
• recluse
• close
• clause

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b 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 Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
10. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
11. ^ The Chambers Dictionary (2014), 13th ed., Edinburgh: Chambers
12. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press