monastery (English)

Where does "monastery" come from?

The English noun 'monastery' descends from Middle English 'monasterie'[1], which was borrowed from Old French 'monastere'[1]. That Old French form traces back to Medieval Latin 'monastērium'[1], meaning a monastery. The Latin term originates from Ancient Greek 'μοναστήριον'[1] meaning hermitage or monastery, built from the root 'μόνος'[1] meaning alone combined with suffixes indicating a place. Along the way, the word is a doublet of the term 'minster'[1].

Full etymology tree

monastery (English), 'A residence for monks or others who have taken religious vows.'
- inherited monasterie (Middle English)
  - inherited monastere (Old French)
    - inherited monasterium (Latin), 'monastery'
      - inherited μοναστήριον (monastḗrion) (Ancient Greek), 'hermitage (a solitary dwelling for a single person)'
        derived μοναστήριος (monastḗrios) (Ancient Greek)
        derived μονάζω (monázō) (Ancient Greek), 'to be alone'
        derived μόνος (mónos) (Ancient Greek), 'alone, forsaken, solitary'
        suffix -άζω (-ázō) (Ancient Greek), 'Used to form verbs from nouns, adjectives, and other verbs.'
        suffix -ιος (-ios) (Ancient Greek), 'Suffix added to nouns or adjectives, forming adjectives: pertaining to, belonging to ("of").'
        suffix -ιον (-ion) (Ancient Greek), 'Termination of neuter substantivations of adjectives in -ιος (-ios, “belonging to”, also forms parasynthetic compounds).'

Ancestors

monasterium (Latin)
μοναστήριον (Ancient Greek)

Cognates and doublets

minster (English)

Descendants and derived words

double monastery (English)
dual monastery (English)
monastery cheese (English)
monasterylike (English)
scary devil monastery (English)

Sources

Updated August 2026

More words starting with M

Etymology data from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · About Miraris