Hermit
Middle English: from Old French hermite, from late Latin eremita, from Greek erēmitēs, from erēmos ‘solitary’.
wiktionary
From Middle English hermite, heremite, eremite, from Old French eremite, from Ecclesiastical Latin, Late Latin eremita, from Ancient Greek ἐρημίτης(erēmítēs, “person of the desert”) from ἐρημία(erēmía, “desert, solitude”), from ἔρημος(érēmos) or ἐρῆμος(erêmos, “uninhabited”) plus -ίτης(-ítēs, “one connected to, a member of”). Doublet of eremite. Displaced native Old English ānsetla.
etymonline
hermit (n.)
early 12c., "religious recluse, one who dwells apart in a solitary place for religious meditation," from Old French hermit, ermit "hermit, recluse," from Late Latin eremita, from Greek eremites, literally "person of the desert," from eremia "a solitude, an uninhabited region, a waste," from erēmos "uninhabited, empty, desolate, bereft," from PIE *erem- "to rest, be quiet" (source also of Sanskrit ramate "to rest;" Lithuanian rimti "to be quiet," Gothic rimis "rest," Old Irish fo-rimim "to set, lay"). The unetymological h- first appeared in Medieval Latin heremite.
Transferred sense of "person living in solitude" is from 1799. Related: Hermitic; hermitical. The hermit crab (1735) is said to be so called for its seeking out and dwelling in a solitary cell.
