The terminological analysis of the word “loneliness”

The paper presents a terminological analysis of the word “loneliness”. The period and place of the first mention of the word in the Russian language are identified. Documents of the 11th - 17th centuries and dictionaries of the Russian language of the 11th - 19th centuries are analyzed; the peculiarities of the use of words “odinachestvo” and “loneliness” and changes in their meanings since 1847 are described. 412 dictionaries on psychology, sociology, philosophy and pedagogy were analyzed. Only 5 % of the dictionaries showed interest in the interpretation of the word “loneliness”. The differences in the definitions of the word “loneliness” by sciences were studied. Interpretation of the phenomenon under study is presented in historical and chronological order and the philosophical and psychological approaches to loneliness are analyzed. The categories “lonely person” and “individualist” were classified and compared. Interdisciplinary dictionaries distinguish the following definitions of “loneliness”: 1. A human condition that occurs due to a forced internal and external distance from other people, long and almost absolute social and communicative isolation. The latter is the lack of a full-fledged, trusted communication due to the breach, break or lack of important social connections and relationships of a person. 2. A feeling of a person, a social phenomenon and a common problem in the world today. It has changed the system of social relations replacing direct communication between people by different kinds of surrogates (e.g., mediated communication via the Internet). 3. A form of conscious or unconscious protest, “escape from reality” and “inner emigration”. It is a result of the lack of an accessible range of communication and a sense of community, significant friendships and love affairs, the presence of any physical defects, disability. 4. A natural, conscious choice necessary for the person to learn independence, to carry out serious work. Having the choice is so important that its loss is only replaced by suffering. 5. A person’s deprivation due to the discomfort of living. 6. A subjective, purely personal feeling of complete immersion in oneself, an emotional experience accompanied by the awareness of dissatisfaction with the subjectively significant need in communication with significant others that can lead to alienation and serious mental disorders. 7. A natural consequence of the negative social upheaval, a state which implies separation from others, but not always physical. In this context the notion is conditionally “separated” from the terms “individualist” and “lonely”. 8. A consequence of the influence of social change on society as a whole and on the individual in a particular historical period, under the influence of certain social conditions. A state expressed in the physical form of alienation on an individual level and, in some cases, in the insulation withe elements of moral discomfort and painful experiences. 9. A social phenomenon that characterizes the frequency and intensity of social interaction, “strength” of social ties with other members of human society. 10. An act of self-consciousness of the individual in the course of which s/he is aware, feels and assesses the state of their own dissatisfaction, which causes outrage interpreted as loneliness.

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