cenobite
noun/ˈsɛn.əˌbaɪt/ · /ˈsiː.nəˌbaɪt/
Etymology From Old French cenobite or Ecclesiastical Latin coenobīta, from coenobium, from Ancient Greek κοινόβιον (koinóbion, “community life, convent”), from κοινός (koinós, “common”) + βίος (bíos, “life”).
1
A new or recent member of a Greek monastic religious order; a caloyer.
- Lamprecht knew very well how the war was going and was perfunctory in his rounding up of Jews and cenobites.1980, Anthony Burgess, Earthly Powers, page 418:
2
A monk who lives in a religious community, rather than in solitude.
- To deprive a gregarious creature of companionship is to maim it, to outrage its nature. The prisoner and the cenobite are aware that the herd exists beyond their exile; they are an aspect of it. But when the herd no longer exists, there is, for the herd creature, no longer entity. He is a part of no whole, a freak without a place.1951, John Wyndham, The Day of the Triffids, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, published 1954, page 208:
3
Fiction, Literature, Media, Publishing A torturous demon creature made famous by the Hellraiser series.
- Derived terms
- cenobitic, cenobitical, cenobitism