E. F. BensonRichard M. Weaver
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The Origin and Etymology of Habit
The word habit most often refers to a usual way of behaving or a tendency that someone has settled into, as in "good eating habits."
In its oldest sense, however, habit meant "clothing" and had nothing to do with the things a person does in a regular and repeated way. Today, this meaning is preserved only in phrases like "nun's habit," "monk's habit," and "riding habit" (clothes worn for horseback riding).
Like so many words that appeared in English in the centuries following the Norman Conquest, habit came from French. Indeed, the modern French word for clothes is habits (pronounced \ah-bee\). In English, habit progressed from meaning “clothing” to “clothing for a particular profession or purpose” to “bearing, conduct, behavior." (The word’s evolution brings to mind the old adage “the clothes make the man," which asserts that the way we dress reflects our character.)
From “what one wears” to “how one conducts oneself,” habit continued to evolve, referring to appearance (“a man of fleshy habit”) and mental makeup (“a philosophical habit”) before, after several centuries in English, it came to mean repeated activity: “a behavior pattern acquired by frequent repetition.”
The specific development of habit to refer to drug addiction began in the 19th century, with reference to opium.
Interestingly, even though “clothing” is the oldest meaning of habit in English, it wasn’t the original meaning of the word's ultimate Latin root, habitus. In Latin, that word’s original meaning was “state of being” or “condition.”
Our most common use of habit today, “acquired mode of behavior,” didn’t exist in Latin—habitus went from meaning “condition” to “how one conducts oneself” to “clothing.” That it was adapted into English in precisely the reverse order is an accident of history; the order of meanings absorbed from one language to another rarely constitutes a logical development. As with all language, meaning is established by usage and force of habit.
Synonyms
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Verb
Examples of habit in a Sentence
Philip Salter, Forbes, 21 Nov. 2024
Researchers tracked the habits of a group of wolves over one bloom season, and noted that individual wolves visited as many as 30 blooms at a time.
—Andrew Paul, Popular Science, 20 Nov. 2024
While shoppers differed on exactly when to begin shopping, the majority agreed that budgetary concerns, both rising prices and how to fit holiday gift-giving into their budget, were among the biggest factors influencing their shopping habits this year.
—Holly V. Hays, The Indianapolis Star, 18 Nov. 2024
Friends, guests, clients all have different habits.
—Tribune Content Agency, The Mercury News, 15 Nov. 2024
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Dictionary Entries Near habit
Cite this Entry
“Habit.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/habit. Accessed 28 Nov. 2024.
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habit
noun
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