different between heremite vs hermit

English

Alternative forms

• eremite, hermit, heremit

Noun

heremite (plural heremites)

1. (obsolete) A hermit; an eremite.
   • 1600, Edward Fairfax, The Jerusalem Delivered of Tasso, XI, iv:

     Next morn the bishops twain, the heremite, / And all the clerks and priests of less estate, // Did in the middest of the camp unite / Within a place for prayer consecrate.

English

Alternative forms

• eremite, heremit, heremite (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English hermite, heremite, eremite, from Old French eremite, from Ecclesiastical Latin, Late Latin eremita, from Ancient Greek ???????? (er?mít?s, “person of the desert”) from ?????? (er?mía, “desert, solitude”), from ?????? (ér?mos) or ?????? (erêmos, “uninhabited”) plus -???? (-ít?s, “one connected to, a member of”). Displaced native Old English ?nsetla.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /?h?m?t/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?h??m?t/
• Rhymes: -??(?)m?t
• Hyphenation: her?mit

Noun

hermit (plural hermits)

1. A religious recluse; someone who lives alone for religious reasons; an eremite.

   Synonyms: anchorite, eremite

2. A recluse; someone who lives alone and shuns human companionship.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:recluse

3. A spiced cookie made with molasses, raisins, and nuts.
4. A hermit crab.
   • 2016, Vicki Judah, Kathy Nuttall, Exotic Animal Care and Management (page 279)

     Because hermits are decapods and do not live within their own shells, they are not considered to be true crabs.

5. A hummingbird in the subfamily Phaethornithinae.

Derived terms

Translations

See also

• monachos
• monk

Anagrams

• mither