Other forms: monks
A monk is a man who has taken vows and lives in a religious community. A Buddhist monk, the monks chanted, a Benedictine monk.
The vows and the community are both essential — a hermit is not a monk. Monasteries preserved and copied texts through centuries when little else did, which is why so much classical literature survives. Note that the Greek behind the word means solitary, from monos, alone, which is the older idea.
1nounmonkA man who has taken vows and lives in a religious community.
“The monks rise before dawn to pray and then work in the monastery garden.”
monk is a religious.
Latin monachus comes from Greek monachos, solitary, from monos, alone. Monopoly and monotone come from the same alone.
Proto-Indo-European
*men- (small)
Ancient Greek
μοναχός — single, solitary
Latin
monicus
Proto-West Germanic
*munik
Old English
munuc
Middle English
monk
English, today
monk
Built from
From Middle English monk, from Old English munuc, from Proto-West Germanic munik, from Latin monicus, variant of monachus, from Ancient Greek μοναχός (“single, solitary”), from μόνος (“alone”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA