Ancient word of the day: Nemophilist

Nemophilist – a haunter of the woods, one who loves the forest for its beauty and solitude.

This rare English word has fallen out of use since the beginning of the 20th century. Although, in Ancient Latin, the word Nemo means nobody. So this makes a Nemophilist a lover of nobody, or a solitude seeker.

Quæris Neminis parem? Nemo est nisi ipse (Do you seek Nemo’s equal? None is, except himself).–Seneca

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There is pleasure in the pathless woods, there is rapture in the lonely shore, there is society where none intrudes, by the deep sea, and music in its roar; I love not Man the less, but Nature more. ~ Lord Byron

It is not so much for its beauty that the forest makes a claim upon men’s hearts, as for that subtle something, that quality of air that emanation from old trees, that so wonderfully changes and renews a weary spirit. Robert Louis Stevenson

Our bodies and minds evolved and were adapted for hundreds of thousands of years for tasks like climbing a tree and picking apples, or hunting rabbits, or looking for mushrooms in the forest. They were not adapted to the very gruelling work that is involved in field work – ploughing, harvesting, bringing water, digging weeds – things like that. Yuval Noah Harari

The career of a sage is of two kinds: He is either honored by all in the world, Like a flower waving its head, Or else he disappears into the silent forest. Lao Tzu

If you’re in a forest, the quality of the echo is very strange because echoes back off so many surfaces of all those trees that you get this strange, itchy ricochet effect. Brian Eno