Meaning
No person is wholly self-sufficient; human lives depend on and affect one another. Man is generic in the historical wording; no one is an inclusive modern alternative. Often used to stress community and mutual obligation. Regional use: English literary and devotional origin; now international English.
Origin
John Donne wrote 'No man is an Iland, intire of it selfe' in Meditation XVII of Devotions upon Emergent Occasions, published in 1624. His argument is not merely that solitude is unpleasant: every death diminishes the whole connected body of mankind. The familiar headphrase is a modernised spelling of Donne's prose, not a line from a poem or from Hemingway.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- No man is an island entire of itself
- No one is an island
- No person is an island
Usage Examples
- No man is an island, so the laboratory shared its findings with the wider team.
- The crisis proved that no one is an island in a small coastal town.
- She prized independence but accepted that no person is an island.