isolato

[ ahy-suh-ley-toh ]

noun

, plural i·so·la·toes.

1. a person who is physically or spiritually isolated from society or out of sympathy with the times:

   In more recent literature, typical heroes are the exile, the expatriate, the resistance fighter, the isolato, the haunted rebel.

Word History and Origins

Origin of isolato¹

First recorded in 1850–55; from Italian, from Latin insulātus; insulate

Example Sentences

It’s about urban loneliness, including the author’s own, and it takes detours into truly offbeat places, such as the music of that genuine isolato, the otherworldly countertenor Klaus Nomi.

From New York Times

Non un caso isolato, ma uno dei tanti crimini di un regime liberticida.

From BBC

They were nearly all Islanders in the Pequod, Isolatoes too, I call such, not acknowledging the common continent of men, but each Isolato living on a separate continent of his own.

From Project Gutenberg