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Jan 15, 2010
This week's theme
Words relating to religion

This week's words
sacerdotal
precatory
vatic
canonical
eremite

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A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg

eremite

PRONUNCIATION:
(AIR-uh-myt)

MEANING:
noun: A recluse, especially for religious reasons.

ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin eremita, from Greek eremia (desert), from eremos (solitary).

USAGE:
"Poor Joyce Maynard. Not since Martina Hingis submarined a serve to Steffi Graf in the French Open has a woman been so universally excoriated for underhanded conduct. And all Maynard did was sell a bunch of mash notes she had saved from a boyfriend of 27 years ago to raise college tuition for her children. Except that the boyfriend happened to be J.D. Salinger -- the eremite of Cornish, N.H."
Mark Leyner; How to Avoid Salinger Syndrome; Time (New York); Jul 5, 1999.

"Thou Spirit, who led'st this glorious Eremite
Into the desert, his victorious field
Against the spiritual foe, and brought'st him thence."
John Milton; Paradise Regained; 1671.

See more usage examples of eremite in Vocabulary.com's dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
There are no passengers on spaceship earth. We are all crew. -Marshall McLuhan, educator and philosopher (1911-1980)

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