solitude
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English
Etymology
From Middle English solitude, from Old French solitude. By surface analysis, sole + -itude.
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈsɒlɪˌtjuːd/
- (General American) IPA(key): /ˈsɑlɪˌtud/
- Hyphenation: sol‧i‧tude
Audio (US) (file)
Noun
solitude (countable and uncountable, plural solitudes)
- Aloneness; the state of being alone, solitary, or by oneself.
- 1859, Edward Fitzgerald, The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám: The Astronomer-Poet of Persia, page 2:
- Now the New Year reviving old Desires,
The thoughtful Soul to Solitude retires,
Where the White Hand of Moses on the Bough
Puts out, and Jesus from the Ground suspires.
- 1975, Saul Bellow, Humboldt’s Gift, New York, N.Y.: Viking Press, →ISBN, page 193:
- Cranks like Rousseau made solitude glamorous, but sensible people agreed that it was really terrible.
- A lonely or deserted place.
- 1813, Lord Byron, Bride of Abydos, Canto 2, stanza 20:
- Mark where his carnage and his conquests cease!
He makes a solitude, and calls it — peace.
- 1874, Georg August Schweinfurth, chapter I, in Ellen E. Frewer, transl., The Heart of Africa: Three Years' Travels and Adventures in the Unexplored Regions of Central Africa, from 1868 to 1871, second edition, volume I, London: Sampson Low, Marston, Low, And Searle, translation of Im Herzen von Afrika, Botanical Ardour:
- [S]uch an one […] recalls as a vision of Paradise the land he has learnt to love; he exaggerates the insalubrity of a northern climate; he bewails the wretched formality of our civilised life, and so, back to the distant solitudes flies his recollection like a dove to the wilderness.
Derived terms
Related terms
Translations
state of being alone
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See also
Further reading
Anagrams
French
Etymology
Learned borrowing from Latin sōlitūdō.
Pronunciation
Noun
solitude f (plural solitudes)
- solitude
- 1969, “Ma solitude”, in Georges Moustaki (lyrics), Le Métèque, performed by Georges Moustaki:
- Elle m’a suivi çà et là / Aux quatre coins du monde / Non, je ne suis jamais seul / Avec ma solitude
- She followed me hither and yon / To the four corners of the world / No, I am never alone / With my solitude
Derived terms
Related terms
Further reading
- “solitude”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé , 2012.
Old French
Noun
solitude oblique singular, f (nominative singular solitude)
Descendants
Portuguese
Etymology
Learned borrowing from Latin sōlitūdō, corresponding to sōlus (“alone”) + -tūdō.
Pronunciation
- Hyphenation: so‧li‧tu‧de
Noun
solitude f (plural solitudes)