habit

noun

hab·it | \ ˈha-bət

Definition of habit

(Entry 1 of 2)

1 : a settled tendency or usual manner of behavior her habit of taking a morning walk

2a : an acquired mode of behavior that has become nearly or completely involuntary got up early from force of habit

b : addiction a drug habit

c : a behavior pattern acquired by frequent repetition or physiologic exposure that shows itself in regularity or increased facility of performance the daily bowel habit

3a : a costume characteristic of a calling, rank, or function a nun's habit

b : a costume worn for horseback riding

4 archaic : clothing

5 : manner of conducting oneself : bearing

6 : bodily appearance or makeup a man of fleshy habit

7 : the prevailing disposition or character of a person's thoughts and feelings : mental makeup a philosophical habit

8 of an organism : characteristic mode of growth or occurrence a grass similar to Indian corn in habit

9 of a crystal : characteristic assemblage of forms at crystallization leading to a usual appearance : shape

habit

verb

habited; habiting; habits

Definition of habit (Entry 2 of 2)

transitive verb

: clothe, dress It is the nature of such pedantry to habit itself in a harsh and crabbed style.— Richard M. Weaver

Synonyms & Antonyms Choose the Right Synonym The Origin and Etymology of Habit More Example Sentences Learn More about habit

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Choose the Right Synonym for habit

Noun

habit, practice, usage, custom, wont mean a way of acting fixed through repetition. habit implies a doing unconsciously and often compulsively. had a habit of tapping his fingers practice suggests an act or method followed with regularity and usually through choice. our practice is to honor all major credit cards usage suggests a customary action so generally followed that it has become a social norm. western-style dress is now common usage in international business custom applies to a practice or usage so steadily associated with an individual or group as to have almost the force of unwritten law. the custom of wearing black at funerals wont usually applies to a habitual manner, method, or practice of an individual or group. as was her wont, she slept until noon

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.

Examples of habit in a Sentence

Noun

It was his habit to take a nap after dinner every evening. It's important that parents teach their children good study habits. He fell into some bad habits after graduating from college. It's never easy to break a bad habit. He still gets up early every day from habit. She always closed the door softly out of habit. He hasn't been able to kick his cocaine habit.

Verb

his exclusive clothing store had habited the town's upper crust for as long as anyone could remember

Recent Examples on the Web: Noun

Chase, for example, opts us in to receiving offers from partner companies based on our spending habits. — Anchorage Daily News, "The spy in your wallet: Credit cards have a privacy problem," 2 Sep. 2019 In their own way, these help build your child’s reading habit. — Wendy Fawthrop, Los Angeles Times, "Review: Two pros aim to make reading fun for kids in ‘How to Raise a Reader’," 30 Aug. 2019 These included vertebrates from humans to ducks and nearly 140 species of beetles, and encompassed detailed information about their eating habits. — Eva Frederick, Science | AAAS, "The world’s first animal was probably a carnivore," 30 Aug. 2019 Read this tome, follow this philosophy, change your habits and you, too, can be a management titan. — The Economist, "Running a company is a permanent juggling act," 29 Aug. 2019 Smokers on the Healthy Indiana Plan pay a surcharge for their habit. — Shari Rudavsky, Indianapolis Star, "'We know we have our work cut out for us': Gov. Holcomb unveils plan to combat teen vaping," 29 Aug. 2019 That means breaking free of the instinct to click over to Twitter in times of boredom can be a hard habit to break. — Sarah Todd, Quartz at Work, "What to do when you’re bored at work," 27 Aug. 2019 The Oregonian/Oregonlive talked with a group of children, ages 4 to 13, about their screen time habits, and what their parents say about time spent watching videos or playing digital games. — oregonlive.com, "Screen time: Kids explain how much is too much," 27 Aug. 2019 Giving a fellow-Londoner the benefit of the doubt, as Lammy and others did with Abbott, is a habit to be encouraged amon

habit

Definition of habit

Synonyms & Antonyms for habit

Choose the Right Synonym for habit

The Origin and Etymology of Habit

Examples of habit in a Sentence

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