Etymology Explorer › English

Where does “monastery” come from?

I need to analyze this etymology chain carefully. Looking at the chain provided: - Old French monastere - Latin monasterium - Ancient Greek μοναστήριον - Ancient Greek μόνος (meaning "alone/single") - Ancient Greek χρῶμα - Proto-Indo-European gʰreu - Ancient Greek χρῶμα - Proto-Indo-European gʰreu There's a significant problem here: the chain appears corrupted or illogical. The sequence jumps from μόνος (alone) to χρῶμα (color), then to PIE gʰreu, then repeats. This doesn't form a coherent etymological path. Typically, "monastery" comes from Greek μοναστήριον, derived from μόνος (alone), referring to a place where solitary monks live. Given the instruction

monastery (English): Building for housing monks or others who have...

Definitions

  1. Building for housing monks or others who have...

Ancestry of “monastery”, step by step

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Old Frenchmonastere—
2Latinmonastērium—
3Ancient Greekμοναστήριονsolitary dwelling, hermit's cell; monastery
4Ancient Greekμόνοςalone, forsaken, solitary; only; unique
5Ancient Greekσπέρμαseed; semen, sperm; seed-time, sowing
6Proto-Hellenic*spérmə—

Words derived from “monastery”

  • monasterylike
  • monasteri
Every word from Proto-Hellenic *spérmə →