anacoreta

Forms

anacoreta m or f by sense (plural anacoretas)^[1] Old and classical Spanish also wrote anachorita, anacorita, anachoreta and nacoreta.^[2] Anacorita was the usual form in the 15th century;^[3] Monlau still gives it as a variant in 1856.^[4][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Late Latin anachoreta (“hermit, recluse”), a learned word, from Ancient Greek ἀναχωρητής (anakhōrētḗs, “one who has withdrawn from the world”).^[4][5][6][1] The Greek noun is formed from ἀναχωρέω (anakhōréō, “to go back, withdraw”) with the agent suffix -τής (-tḗs).^[1][5] The verb is ἀνα- (ana-, “back”) and χωρέω (khōréō, “to make room, go”), itself from χῶρος (khôros, “place”).^[1][7]

In Greek the noun is late: LSJ cites it from Justinian's Novels and a 6th-century inscription from Egypt.^[7] In Latin it appears in Sulpicius Severus and Sidonius.^[8] The older form anacorita follows the Medieval Latin variant anachorita, which Niermeyer lists beside the form in -eta.^[9][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest example in the TDHLE is in Alfonso X's Estoria de España (c. 1270), which says that Pope Telesphorus was griego, del linage de los Anachoritas “a Greek, of the line of the anchorites”; other manuscripts have Anacoricas, Anathoritas and Anatoritas.^[2][10] The DCECH and the BDELC date the word from 1417, in Enrique de Villena's spelling anacorita.^[4][5] In his Trabajos de Hércules Villena counts anchorites among the solitaries, beside hermits and recluses, who live apart and give themselves to the contemplative life.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The sense has hardly changed: a person who lives alone, given to contemplation and penance.^[2][6] The spelling with -eta replaced anacorita in the late 16th century.^[11][4] The CDH has anacoretas in San Juan de la Cruz's Subida del Monte Carmelo (1578–c. 1583), before the DCECH's first example of 1604.^[11][4] The Autoridades (1726) writes anachoreta and notes that it is a Greek word whose ch is pronounced as /k/.^[12] The Academy spelt it anacoreta from 1770.^[13]

From the 19th century the word is also used figuratively for anyone who keeps away from society.^[14][15] In 1899 the Academy made it a noun of common gender, defining it as a person rather than a man.^[16] Spanish-American examples begin in 1683, in the New Kingdom of Granada.^[17]

Timeline

• c. 1270 – Alfonso X's Estoria de España writes Anachoritas.^[2][10]
• 1417 – Enrique de Villena uses anacorita, the DCECH's first record.^[4][5]
• 1490 – Alfonso de Palencia's vocabulary equates hermits with anacoritas.^[2]
• 1578–c. 1583 – San Juan de la Cruz writes anacoretas.^[11]
• 1604 – the DCECH's first record of the form anacoreta.^[4]
• 1683 – first record in the Americas, in the New Kingdom of Granada.^[17]
• 1726 – the Autoridades enters it as anachoreta.^[12]
• 1770 – the Academy's dictionary spells it anacoreta.^[13]
• 1846 – Domínguez records the figurative sense of a person who lives withdrawn from society.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. An anchorite or hermit: a person who lives in a solitary place, given wholly to contemplation (contemplación) and penance: Durante años vivió como anacoreta en una cueva del monte.^[6][18][1]
2. (figurative) A person who lives withdrawn from society and avoids company.^[14][15]

Word family

• anacorético

Related words

• eremita
• ermitaño
• Latin anachoreta

Usage notes

The word is masculine or feminine according to the person: el anacoreta, la anacoreta.^[6][1] Moliner lists it with the near-synonyms eremita, ermitaño and cenobita, the last a monk living in community.^[18]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Real Academia Española (2021–), Tesoro de los diccionarios históricos de la lengua española (TDHLE): Diccionario histórico (1933–1936), its unpublished slips, Diccionario histórico (1960–1996), DHECan, DHECR, DHEVen, https://www.rae.es/tdhle, p. s.v. anacoreta
3. ^ a b Monlau, Pedro Felipe (1856), Diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana (ensayo), Madrid: Imprenta de la Sociedad Literaria y Tipográfica, p. 193
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 250
5. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. anacoreta
6. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. anacoreta
7. ^ a b Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
10. ^ a b Kasten, Lloyd A.; Nitti, John J.; Gago Jover, Francisco (2002–), Diccionario de la prosa castellana del Rey Alfonso X, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (electronic edition 2024), p. s.v. anacoreta
11. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. anacoreta
12. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 1, 279
13. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1770), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 2nd ed., vol. I: A–B, Madrid: Joachín Ibarra, p. 1, 233
14. ^ a b c Domínguez, Ramón Joaquín (1846–1847), Diccionario nacional o gran diccionario clásico de la lengua española, 2 vols., Madrid: Establecimiento Léxico-Tipográfico de R. J. Domínguez, p. 117
15. ^ a b Gaspar y Roig (eds.) (1853–1855), Biblioteca ilustrada de Gaspar y Roig: Diccionario enciclopédico de la lengua española, 2 vols., Madrid: Imprenta y Librería de Gaspar y Roig, p. 1, 145
16. ^ Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 63
17. ^ a b Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. anacoreta
18. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. anacoreta