'recluse' originates from Latin, specifically the word 'reclusus', where the prefix 're-' meant 'back' and the root related to 'claudere/cludere' meant 'to shut'.

'recluse' passed into English via Old French 'reclus' and Middle English 'reclus(e)', eventually becoming the modern English word 'recluse'.

Initially it had the sense 'shut back' or 'shut away' (literally 'shut out/off'); over time it came to mean 'a person shut away from society' and now denotes 'a solitary or withdrawn person'.