Anchoret

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A solitary individual who retreats from society to engage in spiritual reflection and personal prayer often leads a lifestyle devoted to religious practices
2. An individual who deliberately isolates themselves from communal life to focus on meditation and religious observance typically pursues a profound relationship with the divine
3. A person who chooses to live apart from others in order to dedicate themselves to prayer and meditation while seeking a deeper spiritual fulfillment is known to embrace solitude

Etymology: The word's Greek ancestor, "anakhōrētēs," comes from "anakhōreō," meaning "to withdraw" or "to retire." That verb is built from "ana-," meaning "back" or "up," and "khōreō," "to go" or "to make room," which itself grows from "khōros," a space or place. So at its root the idea is simply stepping back into a space of one's own. The Greek noun passed into Latin as "anachōrēta" and then, in a variant form, "anchōrēta," which was used for early Christian hermits who withdrew to the desert. English took it up as "anchorite," a term for a religious recluse who lived apart from the world, often walled into a small cell attached to a church. The spelling "anchoret" is a shortened variant of that same word. The English form follows the Latin variant, so the "-ite" ending is not the familiar mineral or fossil suffix but simply the ordinary Latinate ending for a person of a certain kind, as in "Israelite" or "Jesuit." Its link to a physical retreat, a withdrawal into a cell, is preserved in the word's spirit even as its meaning broadened to any solitary devotee.

Synonyms: hermit, recluse, ascetic, solitary, anchorite