hermit, n.
(ˈhɜːmɪt)
Forms: α. 3 armite, 4–5 ermyt(e, 4–6 armyte, armet, 4–7 ermite, 7 ermit. β. 4–6 hermyte, 4–8 -mite, (5 -mett), 6– hermit. γ. 3–7 heremite, 4–5 -myt(e, 6 Sc. -meit, 6–7 -mit. See also eremite.
[ME. hermite, ermite, a. OF. (h)ermite, L. erēmīta (med.L. also herēmīta), ad. Gr. ἐρηµίτης, f. ἐρηµία desert. Beside the forms immed. from French, ME. had heremite after med.L.; mod.Eng. has also eremite, q.v.]
1. a. One who from religious motives has retired into solitary life; esp. one of the early Christian recluses. See eremite 1.
| α c 1205 Lay. 18800 Sone þe armite [c 1275 heremite] com in. a 1300 Cursor M. 8135 (Gött.) An armyte [v.rr. heremite, ermyte] þar þai fand at hame In þat montayn, was halt and lame. c 1300 St. Brandan 610 The ermite that was so old aȝen hem com gon. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 141/2 Ermyte..heremita. 1535 Stewart Cron. Scot. II. 704 Into that yle..Ane halie armet duelland war tha dais. 1621 Burton Anat. Mel. i. ii. i. ii, S. Hierome in the life of Paul the Ermite tells a story. 1651 Jer. Taylor Holy Dying i. §3 (1727) 21 To be spent in the cottage of a frugal person, or to feed an Ermit. |
| β a 1300 Cursor M. 17900 (Gött.) A man come þan widuten lite, Þat semed wele haue bene hermite [v. rr. eremite, eremyte, Ermyte]. 1362 Langl. P. Pl. A. Prol. 3 In Habite of an Hermite [B. Heremite, C. Ermite] vn-holy of werkes. c 1400 Mandeville (Roxb.) vii. 24 A haly hermit mette..a beste forschapen. 1481 Caxton Myrr. i. v. 22 The other gaf it [their tresour] away and..wente as hermytes. 1588 Shakes. L.L.L. iv. iii. 242 A withered Hermite, fiuescore winters worne, Might shake off fiftie, looking in her eye. 1703 Maundrell Journ. Jerus. (1732) 80 Hermits retiring hither for Penance and Mortification. 1847 Emerson Repr. Men, Goethe Wks. I. 384 There is much to be said by the hermit or monk in defence of his life of thought and prayer. |
| γ c 1275 Lay. 18804 Þan heremite he iseh come. c 1375 Sc. Leg. Saints, Magdalena 812 A preste..Þat fled þe warld as heremyt. 1497 Bp. Alcock Mons Perfect. D iij b, An heremyte cam to saynt Anthony. 1500–20 Dunbar Poems xxv. 9 O! ȝe heremeitis and hankersaidilis, That takis your pennance at your tablis. 1600 J. Pory tr. Leo's Africa ii. 154 The rule of heremites, the professors..whereof inhabite woods and solitarie places. |
b. transf. A person living in solitude.
| 1799 Campbell Pleas. Hope ii. 38 The world was sad..And man, the hermit, sigh'd—till woman smiled. 1841 Emerson Addr., Lit. Ethics Wks. (Bohn) II. 213 The poets who have lived in cities have been hermits still. 1849 Robertson Serm. Ser. i. viii. (1866) 138 A solitary man who..led a hermit's life..for hermit..he was. |
2. In senses immediately derived from 1.
a. In the formal designation of certain monastic orders:
e.g. Hermits of St. Augustine: see
eremite 2.
| 1577–87 [see eremite]. 1706 tr. Dupin's Eccl. Hist. 16th C. II. iv. xi. 449 The Augustinians produced one [new branch] that of the Hermites of St. Augustin. |
b. A quasi-religious mendicant; a vagabond; in Gypsy slang, a highwayman.
| 1495 Act 11 Hen. VII, c. 2 §3 Every vagabounde heremyte or begger able to labre. 1568 Grafton Chron. II. 118 Peter Wakefielde..an Hermite, an idle gadder about, and a pratlyng marchant. 1840 Longfellow Sp. Stud. iii. v, And you, by the pole with the hermit's head upon it. |
† c. A beadsman. Also
fig. Obs.| 1588 Shakes. Tit. A. iii. ii. 41 As perfect As begging Hermits in their holy prayers. 1605 ― Macb. i. vi. 20 For those [honours] of old, and the late Dignities, Heap'd vp to them, we rest your Ermites. 1688 R. Holme Armoury iii. 190/2 Begging Heremits first began to propagate here in England. |
3. Applied to various animals of solitary habits, as the hermit-crab, the hermit-bird; see 4 b. In
Austral. and
N.Z. spec. of a sheep; also
hermit sheep.
| 1661 Walton Angler i. (ed. 3) 33 There is a fish called a Hermit, that at a certain age gets into a dead fishes shell, and like a Hermite dwells there alone. 1677 N. Cox Gentl. Recreat. iv. (ed. 2) 5. 1862 Wood Nat. Hist. II. 239 All the Hermits build a very curious and beautiful nest. Ibid. (1865) III. 603 If two Hermits be removed from their houses, and put into a rock pool..the combats which take place..are as fierce and determined as any. 1874 A. Bathgate Colonial Experiences xv. 212 A sheep which has been badly tutued and recovers, loses its gregarious habits, and becomes what the shepherds call a ‘hermit’. 1917 E. Glen Six Little N.Zers vii. 95 They brought in a ‘hermit’ sheep which lived by itself, and had been overlooked in the last muster. 1933 L. G. D. Acland in Press (Christchurch, N.Z.) 28 Oct. 15/7 Hermit, a single sheep which for some reason takes to living by himself, away from the mob. 1966 G. W. Turner Eng. Lang. Austral. & N.Z. viii. 165 Sheep that recovered [from eating tutu] sometimes became hermit sheep, losing their gregarious habits. |
4. attrib. and
Comb., as
hermit-seat;
hermit-fancied,
hermit-haunted adjs.;
hermit-like a. and adv., like a hermit.
| c 1500 Melusine lvii. 336 He dide doo make many hermyte habytes. 1709 Watts Horæ Lyr. ii. To Discontented, Sylvia..Flies to the woods; a hermit saint! 1727–46 Thomson Summer 15 Come Inspiration! from thy hermit seat, By mortal seldom found. 1785 Burns Vision i. xx, Near many a hermit-fancy'd cove. a 1800 Cowper Snail, Hermit-like, his life he leads. 1852 Hawthorne Blithedale Rom. xxiv, Within which lurked the hermit-frog. 1878 Prodigal Son iv. in Simpson Sch. Shaks. II. 109 Many other hermitlike fools. |
b. In names of various animals of solitary habits:
hermit-bird, (
a) a humming-bird of genus
Phaëthornis; (
b) a South American Halcyonide bird of genus
Monasa, a nun-bird;
hermit-crab,
† hermit-fish,
hermit-lobster, a crab of the family
Paguridæ which has the habit of taking up its abode in a cast-off molluscan shell for the sake of protecting its soft shell-less hinder parts;
hermit-crow, a name of the chough;
hermit-thrush, a migratory thrush,
Turdus solitarius, common in most parts of North America, and celebrated for its song;
hermit-warbler, the western warbler,
Dendrœca occidentalis, of the Pacific slope of North America.
| 1837 Swainson Nat. Hist. Birds 154 The *hermit birds..frequently rise up perpendicularly in the air, make a swoop, and return again to their former station. |
| 1735 Mortimer in Phil. Trans. XXXIX. 115 The *Hermit-Crabs are generally found in great Plenty under these Trees. 1863 Wood Nat. Hist. III. 603 Like all its race, the Hermit-crab inhabits the shell of some mollusc. |
| 1591 Sylvester Du Bartas i. v. 401 The *Hermit-fish..that builds him a defence 'Gainst Weather's rigour and Warr's insolence. |
| 1850 Johnston Conchol. 81 The other tribe are the soldier or *hermit lobsters (Paguri). |
| 1840 Swainson Nat. Hist. Insects 106 *Hermit moths..extraordinary moths hitherto found only in New Holland. |
| 1831 ― in Fauna Bor. Amer. II. 185 The food of the *Hermit Thrush consists chiefly of berries. 1884 Roe Nat. Ser. Story vii, The chief musician of the American forests, the hermit-thrush. |
Hence
ˈhermit,
ˈhermitize vbs. intr., to live as a hermit.
ˈhermitism,
ˈhermitry, the mode of life of a hermit.
| 1610 G. Fletcher Christ's Tri. after Death xlvi, When with us hermiting in lowe degree, He wash't his flocks in Jordan's spotlesse tide. 1896 Daily News 25 Apr. 5/1 ‘Hermitism’ is rule of life for the middle-aged in India. 1825 Hone Every-day Bk. I. 286 He starved and hermitized at Hessleborough. 1844 W. H. Maxwell Sports & Adv. Scotl. xii. (1855) 117 On this isolated..isle, the..Duke was left to hermitize. 1882 H. C. Merivale Faucit of B. ii. vi, Hermitry must be such a bore if persevered in, the essence of life being variety. |