Not a novel usage at all. It's frequently used to mean "insulated" or "protected from the outside". E.g.: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/07/opinion/roger-cohen

Not a novel usage at all. It's frequently used to mean "insulated" or "protected from the outside". E.g.: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/07/opinion/roger-cohen-iran-united-states-embassy-tehran.html http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/07/opinion/roger-cohen-iran-u... http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/08/08/word-of-the-day-hermetic/ http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/08/08/word-of-the-day... http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/14/t-magazine/art/lucy-jorge-orta-antarctica-art.html http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/14/t-magazine/art/lucy-jorge-... (Googling lowercase "hermetic" is nearly impossible since the uppercase meaning is much more prevalent.) Of course, talking about "hermetic containers" makes it a sort of pun.