Episode 184: Hermit

(Intro & piano music)

This is a prime example of a metaphor gaining its own power and becoming a stand-alone word. Ερημος (erimos) in both Ancient Greek and Sanskrit(we find it at the same time with minor differences) meant 'the desert' . A person that would dwell alone in the desert was an Ερημίτης (erimitis). Eons past and that was linked to religious acts of seclusion. But by then, anyone who was voluntarily alone was an Ερημίτης. Metaphorically, if someone was left alone or with nothing, was-and still is-called Eρημος. And that's how the word travelled, with an added 'h' during Medieval Latin. ΕΡΗΜΟΣ/HERMIT

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