solitude

What it means

1. countableuncountableAloneness; the state of being alone, solitary, or by oneself.

   As much as I definitely enjoy solitude / I wouldn't mind perhaps / Spending little time with you

   1995, “Possibly Maybe”, in Post, performed by Björk

   2 more examples

   Now the New Year reviving old Desires, The thoughtful Soul to Solitude retires, Where the White Hand of Moses on the Bough Puts out, and Jesus from the Ground suspires.

   1859, Edward Fitzgerald, The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám: The Astronomer-Poet of Persia, page 2

   Cranks like Rousseau made solitude glamorous, but sensible people agreed that it was really terrible.

   1975, Saul Bellow, Humboldt’s Gift, New York, N.Y.: Viking Press, →ISBN, page 193

   Synonyms: aloneness, seclusion · Antonyms: intimacy

2. countableuncountableA lonely or deserted place.

   Mark where his carnage and his conquests cease! He makes a solitude, and calls it — peace.

   1813, Lord Byron, Bride of Abydos, Canto 2, stanza 20

   1 more example

   [S]uch an one […] recalls as a vision of Paradise the land he has learnt to love; he exaggerates the insalubrity of a northern climate; he bewails the wretched formality of our civilised life, and so, back to the distant solitudes flies his recollection like a dove to the wilderness.

   1874, Georg August Schweinfurth, chapter I, in Ellen E. Frewer, transl., The Heart of Africa: Three Years' Travels and Adventures in the Unexplored Regions of Central Africa, from 1868 to 1871, second edition, volume I, London: Sampson Low, Marston, Low, And Searle, translation of Im Herzen von Afrika, Botanical Ardour

   Synonyms: back of beyond, bumfuck, corner, hermitage, hermitry, hidey-hole, seclusion

In a sentence

Now the New Year reviving old Desires, The thoughtful Soul to Solitude retires, Where the White Hand of Moses on the Bough Puts out, and Jesus from the Ground suspires.

1859, Edward Fitzgerald, The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám: The Astronomer-Poet of Persia, page 2

Where it comes from

1. Latinsōlitūdō
2. Old Frenchsolitude
3. Middle Englishsolitude
4. Englishsolitude

From Middle English solitude, from Old French solitude, from Latin sōlitūdō. By surface analysis, sole + -itude.