Over the past while, I’ve been thinking about the difference between being alone and being lonely.

Oneliness – the state of being on one’s own, but without any of the negative connotations of ‘loneliness’. (via @qikipedia)

“The term ‘loneliness’ first crops up in English around 1800. Before then, the closest word was ‘oneliness’, simply the state of being alone. As with solitude – from the Latin ‘solus’ which meant ‘alone’ – ‘oneliness’ was not coloured by any suggestion of emotional lack. Solitude or oneliness was not unhealthy or undesirable, but rather a necessary space for reflection with God, or with one’s deepest thoughts.” – Fay Bound Alberti

https://aeon.co/ideas/one-is-the-loneliest-number-the-history-of-a-western-problem