recluse: [13] A recluse is etymologically a person who is ‘shut up’. The word was borrowed from reclus, the past participle of Old French reclure ‘shut up’. This was descended from Latin reclūdere, a compound verb formed from the prefix re- ‘again’ and claudere ‘shut’ (source of English close) which originally, paradoxically, meant ‘open’ – the notion being ‘reversing the process of closing’. ‘Shut up’ emerged in the post-classical period. => close[recluse etymology, recluse origin, 英语词源]