Recluse vs. Hermit

By Jaxson

  • Recluse

    A recluse is a person who lives in voluntary seclusion from the public and society. The word is from the Latin recludere, which means “shut up” or “sequester”. Historically, the word referred to a hermit’s total isolation from the world. Examples are Symeon of Trier, who lived within the great Roman gate Porta Nigra with permission from the Archbishop of Trier, or Theophan the Recluse, the 19th-century Russian Orthodox monk who was later glorified as a saint. Celebrated figures who spent, or have spent, significant portions of their lives as recluses include Virgil, Michelangelo, Isaac Newton, Emily BrontĂ«, J. D. Salinger, Emily Dickinson, Gustave Flaubert, Paul CĂ©zanne, Nikola Tesla, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, H. P. Lovecraft, Marie Curie, Marcel Proust, Howard Hughes, Greta Garbo, Jackson Pollock, Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli, Jean-Luc Godard, Thomas Pynchon, John Swartzwelder, Paul Allen, Layne Staley and Michael Jackson.

  • Hermit

    A hermit (adjectival form: eremitic or hermitic) is a person who lives in seclusion from society, usually for religious reasons.

Wikipedia
  • Recluse (adjective)

    (now rare) Sequestered; secluded, isolated.

    “a recluse monk or hermit”

  • Recluse (adjective)

    (now rare) Hidden, secret.

  • Recluse (noun)

    A person who lives in self-imposed isolation or seclusion from the world, especially for religious purposes; a hermit.

  • Recluse (noun)

    The place where a recluse dwells; a place of isolation or seclusion.

  • Recluse (noun)

    A brown recluse spider.

  • Recluse (verb)

    To shut; to seclude.

  • Hermit (noun)

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

  • Hermit (noun)

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

  • Hermit (noun)

    A spiced cookie made with molasses, raisins, and nuts.

  • Hermit (noun)

    A hermit crab.

  • Hermit (noun)

    A bird in the subfamily Phaethornithinae.

Wiktionary
  • Recluse (noun)

    a person who lives a solitary life and tends to avoid other people

    “she has turned into a virtual recluse”

    “he’s a bit of a recluse”

  • Recluse (adjective)

    favouring a solitary life.

  • Hermit (noun)

    a person living in solitude as a religious discipline.

  • Hermit (noun)

    a reclusive or solitary person.

  • Hermit (noun)

    a hummingbird found in the shady lower layers of tropical forests, foraging along a regular route.

Oxford Dictionary

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