Cloistral

/ˈklɔɪstrəl/ adjective

Definition

Relating to or characteristic of a cloister or monastic life; secluded and devoted to religious or scholarly pursuits.

Etymology

From cloister plus the Latinate suffix -al. While 'cloisteral' is more common in English, 'cloistral' appears in medieval and ecclesiastical texts as an alternative form, representing different layers of English's borrowing from Latin.

Kelly Says

English has multiple adjectives for the same noun—'cloistral' and 'cloisteral' both mean the same thing, but they arrived at different times from different linguistic paths, showing how language builds redundancy over centuries.

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