a. Also 6 heremeticall, 7–8 -itical, 6–8 eremetical(l. [f. prec. + -AL.]
1. Of or pertaining to an eremite; characteristic of or habitual to an eremite.
1577. Harrison, Descr. Brit., ix. in Holinshed (1807), I. 46. The heremeticall profession was onelie allowed of in Britaine.
1601. F. Godwin, Bps. of Eng., 497. Affecting much an Eremiticall and solitarie life.
1693. trans. Emilianne’s Hist. Monast. Ord., xii. 101. That he might learn the Eremetical Trade.
1814. L. Hunt, Feast of Poets (1815), Notes 97. The latter [Wordsworth] … nourishes that eremitical vagueness of sensation,—that making a business of reverie [etc.].
1876. J. H. Newman, Hist. Sk., II. III. ii. 314. [An] opportunity of becoming acquainted with these … eremitical stations when he became their Bishop.
2. Of or pertaining to an order of Eremite friars. See EREMITE 2.
1756–7. trans. Keysler’s Trav. (1760), III. 401. The church of St. Philip and St. James belongs to the eremetical fathers of St. Augustine.
1762. trans. Busching’s Syst. Geog., I. 324. Here formerly stood the only Eremitical convent in the whole kingdom.
1857. Miss Winkworth, trans. Tauler’s Life & Serm., 89. The eremitical Cœlestines … seem also to have been offshoots from these Spiritual Franciscans.
