- recluse (n.)
- early 13c., "person shut up from the world for purposes of religious meditation," from O.Fr. reclus (fem. recluse), noun use of reclus (adj.) "shut up," from L.L. reclusus, pp. of recludere "to shut up, enclose" (but in classical L. "to throw open"), from L. re-, intensive prefix + claudere "to shut" (see close (v.)). Reclusive first recorded 1590s (recluse formerly served also as an adj. in English).