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hermetic

UK/hə(ɹ)ˈmɛtɪk/US/hə(ɹ)ˈmɛtɪk/
adjectiveC2Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #14,749 of 15,258leans written

Hermetic means sealed so that no air passes, or closed to outsiders. A hermetic seal, hermetically sealed, a hermetic world.

The figurative use is the commoner one, so a hermetic circle is one nobody can get into. The name comes from an alchemist credited with a way of sealing a vessel completely.

Definitions of hermetic

  1. 1adjectivehermeticSealed so that no air passes, or closed to outsiders.C2

    “The department was a hermetic world with a language of its own.”

hermetic is a quality.

Remember it

Hermes was said to seal a chest so tightly that nothing could ever get into it. Hermetic still means sealed against the world, and shut to outsiders.

hooks ontosealchest

Where it comes from

Medieval Latin hermeticus comes from Hermes Trismegistus, the legendary alchemist said to know how to seal a vessel airtight.

  1. Medieval Latin

    hermeticus

  2. English, today

    hermetic

From Medieval Latin hermeticus, irregular derivation of Hermes Trismegistus, the god and mythological alchemist, said to possess a magic ability to seal treasure chests so that nothing could access their contents.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

hermetic in the wild

  • A hermetic seal is any type of sealing that makes a given object airtight (preventing the passage of air, oxygen, or other gases).

    Hermetic seal

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.