This word confusion hermit vs monk cropped up in a story I was reading, and I was curious.
Most of us know these words from the religious aspect of it, so I was surprised to learn of all the other meanings.
A hermit is a solitary person, a role that began in the desert, and it’s also a cookie and a hummingbird. As for the solitary animal, well that only makes sense *grin*.
The monk is part of a community. I suspect that would put me in a bad mood, per the Northern English, but that a monk can also be an ink splot, that I did not expect. And I still don’t get it.
Exploring Later . . .
You may want to explore “Accolade versus Acolyte“.
Word Confusions . . .
. . . started as my way of dealing with a professional frustration with properly spelled words that were out of context in manuscripts I was editing as well as books I was reviewing. It evolved into a sharing of information with y’all. I’m hoping you’ll share with us words that have been a bête noire for you from either end.
If you found this post on “Hermit versus Monk” interesting, consider subscribing to KD Did It, if you’d like to track this post for future updates.
| Hermit | Monk |
|---|---|
The Tarot Card: The Hermit is under the CC0 1.0 license, via RawPixel. |
Wat Niwet Monks, Ayutthaya, Thailand, by Mark Fisher is under the CC BY-SA 2.0 license, via Flickr. |
| Part of Grammar: | |
| Noun
Plural: hermits A.k.a. eremite, solitary |
Noun 1, 2
Plural: monks |
A person living in solitude as a religious discipline
[Zoology] An animal of solitary habits [Ornithology] Any of numerous hummingbirds of the genera Glaucis and Phaethornis, having curved bills and dull-colored rather than iridescent plumage found in the shady lower layers of tropical forests, foraging along a regular route [Baking] A spiced molasses cookie often containing raisins or nuts [Obsolete] A beadsman |
A member of a religious community of men typically living under vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience 1
[Printing] A dark area on a printed page caused by uneven inking of the plate or type [Northern England; informal; have a monk on, get a monk on] Be or get annoyed 2
|
| Examples: | |
| “Some hermits set up their home near a ford, a marshy swamp, or a forest path so that they could act as a guide to travellers” (What).
Michael Finkel writes of a man living in the woods for twenty-seven years in The Stranger in the Woods: The Extraordinary Story of the Last True Hermit. “During a summer internship for a local newspaper, she covered a hermit crab beauty pageant” (Cogan). “Recognition of the hermit hummingbirds as a separate subfamily Phaethorninae goes back nearly 150 years” (Stiles). “Some say hermit cookies got their name because they taste best when they’ve been hidden away like hermits for a couple days. There’s the theory that they looked like a hermit’s brown cloth” (Swanson). Then she called to the hermit and asked him to pray for the knight. |
The Chronicles of Brother Cadfael is a medieval mystery series about an inquisitive Benedictine monk.
A former hermit, Benedict quickly realized that monks required rules and identified four types of monks: cenobites, anchorites, sarabites, and gyrovagues. He has withdrawn to become a Buddhist monk. I wonder if Gregor Mendel would have developed his theory of genetics if he hadn’t been a monk. Poor quality paper and/or the wrong ink can cause monks. Everyone at work seems to have a monk on today. Don’t get a monk on, mate. I’ve just got a monk on tonight — no real reason for it. |
| Derivatives: | |
| Adjective: hermit-like, hermitic, hermitical, hermitish, hermitlike Adverb: hermitically, unhermitically Noun: hermitage, hermitism, hermitry, hermitship |
Adjective: monkish, monklike Adverb: monkishly Noun: monasticism, monkery, monkhood, monkishness |
| History of the Word: | |
| Middle English from the Old French hermite, from the late Latin eremita, from the Greek erēmitēs, which is from erēmos meaning solitary. |
|
C’mon, get it out of your system, bitch, whine, moan . . . which words are your pet peeves? Also, please note that I try to be as accurate as I can, but mistakes happen or I miss something. Email me if you find errors, so I can fix them . . . and we’ll all benefit!
Satisfy your curiosity about other Word Confusions on its homepage or more generally explore the index of self-editing posts. You may also want to explore Book Layout & Formatting Ideas, Formatting Tips, Grammar Explanations, Linguistics, Publishing Tips, the Properly Punctuated, Writing Ideas and Resources, and Working Your Website.
Resources for Hermit versus Monk
Some of these links may be affiliate links, and I will earn a small percentage, if you should buy it. It does not affect the price you pay.
Apple Dictionary.com
Cogan, Marin. “Date Lab: She Had So Many Fun Stories to Share. He Kept Asking About Work.” Washington Post. 18 Feb 2021. Accessed 3 Mar 2024. <https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/magazine/date-labshe-had-many-fun-stories-to-share-he-kept-asking-about-work/2021/02/11/3c0a1d2e-5c02-11eb-8bcf-3877871c819d_story.html>.
“Eremitism versus Monasticism in Medieval Europe.” Hermitary. 2011. Accessed 3 Mar 2024. <https://www.hermitary.com/articles/eremitism_europe.html>.
Stiles, Gary. “Proposal 178: Abandon the Hinkelmann-Schuchmann classification of the hermit hummingbirds (Phaethorninae), and specifically their classification of the Phaethornis superciliosus-malaris-longirostris species group.” Museum. Louisiana State University. 2005. Accessed 3 Mar 2024. <https://www.museum.lsu.edu/~Remsen/SACCprop178.htm>.
Swanson, Heidi. “What are Hermit Cookies.” 101 Cookbooks. 27 Nov 2023. Accessed 3 Mar 2024. <https://www.101cookbooks.com/hermit-cookies/>.
“What was a Hermit? Find Out About Some Famous Hermits From the Middle Ages.” University of Aberdeen. n.d. Accessed 3 Mar 2024. <https://www.abdn.ac.uk/sll/disciplines/english/lion/hermit.shtml>.
Pinterest Photo Credits
Caribbean Hermit Crab (Coenobita clypeatus) is JSutton83‘s own work and is under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license, via Wikimedia Commons. Rasaśāstra, Collection ID: 0002, Ms. Coll. 390 Item 796, under the CC BY 4.0 license, is courtesy of Repositories at the University of Pennsylvania Libraries.
