Etymologically
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solitude

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Pronunciation

  • UK: /ˈsɒlɪˌtjuːd/[1]
  • US: /ˈsɑlɪˌtud/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English solitude,[2][3] borrowed from Old French solitude (“loneliness”) and probably directly borrowed from Latin sōlitūdō (“loneliness, being alone; lonely place, wilderness”),[4][5][6][2][7] from sōlus (“alone”), the source of sole,[5][6][8][9] with the suffix -tūdō (English -tude).[10][6][9] Merriam-Webster, Klein and Dictionary.com give the route through Middle French.[10][8][11] The Latin noun is also the source of Italian solitudine and Portuguese solitude.[4] The AHD places sōlus under the root Proto-Indo-European *s(w)e-.[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

The state of being alone: probably 1348, in Richard Rolle,[6][2] and about 1374 in Chaucer's Complaint of Mars, the OED's first record.[4][3]

Semantic evolution

The word was not in common use in English until the 17th century.[4][5] Already in Middle English it could also mean a secluded place,[2] a sense the OED records from 1576, together with the loneliness of a place, its absence of life or stir, from 1585.[4] Bacon used it in 1605 for a complete lack of something, a rare sense,[4][10] and Henry More in 1642 for the fact of being unique, a sense that soon died out.[4][10] Johnson (1755) defined it as "lonely life; state of being alone" and quoted Bacon: "whosoever is delighted with solitude, is either a wild beast or a god".[13] The derivative solitudinarian, a recluse, is recorded from the 1690s.[5]

Timeline

  • c. 1348 – the state of being alone, in Rolle.[6][2]
  • c. 1374 – in Chaucer's Complaint of Mars.[4][3]
  • 1576 – a lonely or uninhabited place.[4]
  • 1585 – loneliness of a place.[4]
  • 1605 – a complete lack (rare).[4]
  • 1642 – the fact of being unique (obsolete by 1646).[4]
  • 1690s – solitudinarian, a recluse.[5]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The state of being alone or cut off from others; seclusion or isolation: He wrote best in the solitude of his cabin.[14][10][4]
  2. A lonely, remote or uninhabited place, such as a desert or wilderness.[14][10][4]
  3. (archaic) A complete lack.[10][4]
  4. (obsolete, 1642–1646) The fact of being the only one; uniqueness.[10][4]

Word family

  • solitudinarian

Usage notes

Dictionary.com distinguishes solitude, which stresses being or feeling lonely and cut off, from isolation, which may mean only being kept apart from others, as with an infectious disease.[11]

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e 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 Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  6. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  7. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  8. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  9. ^ a b Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  10. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  11. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  12. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  13. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  14. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins