Skip to main content
Carthusian

Carthusian

9.9
A monk or nun who lives quietly in prayer and alone in a monastery
  • noun
  • /kɑrˈθuːziən/
translation icon : cartujano
  • A Carthusian is dedicated to a contemplative lifestyle, focusing on silence and reflection.

Examples

  • The Carthusian monks live a life of solitude and prayer in their monasteries.

  • There's others like the Carthusians, which you know, we get the term chartreuse from right after the liquor that they they made and the color of it.

  • The Carthusian order was established in the remote mountains to promote a quiet, spiritual existence.

Compounds

A group of Catholic monks who live mostly alone, keep silence, and pray often

Surface Forms

Carthusian singular
Carthusians plural

Morphology

Carthusian = Carthus + ian

Although the suffix '-ian' is a productive English marker for membership or relation, the root 'Carthus' is a non‑English/place name (the name of the order/monastery) unknown to most learners, so the meaning cannot be derived from familiar English components.

Etymology

The word Carthusian comes from Chartreuse, the mountain monastery in France where St Bruno founded the order in 1084, so a Carthusian is a member of that order known for a life of 'silence' and prayer.