habit

habit
\ \ [13] Etymologically, a habit is ‘what one has’. The word comes via Old French abit from Latin habitus, originally the past participle of the verb habērehave’. This was used reflexively for ‘be’, and so the past participle came to be used as a noun for ‘how one is’ – one’s ‘state’ or ‘condition’. Subsequently this developed along the lines of both ‘outward condition or appearance’, hence ‘clothing’, and ‘inner condition, quality, nature, character’, later ‘usual way of behaving’. This proliferation of meaning took place in Latin, and was taken over lock, stock, and barrel by English, although the ‘clothing’ sense now survives only in relation to monks, nuns, and horseriders. (Incidentally, the notion of adapting the verb have to express ‘how one is, how one comports oneself’ recurs in behave.) Derived from Latin habitus was the verb habitāre, originally literally ‘have something frequently or habitually’, hence ‘live in a place’.
\ \ This has given English habitation [14], inhabit [14], and also habitat [18], literally ‘it dwells’, the third person present singular of habitāre, which was used in medieval and Renaissance books on natural history to describe the sort of place in which a particular species lived. Malady [13] comes via Old French from an unrecorded Vulgar Latin *male habitusin bad condition’.
\ \ Cf.HABITAT, INHABIT, MALADY

Word origins - 2ed. . 2005.

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  • habit — habit …   Dictionnaire des rimes

  • habit — [ abi ] n. m. • XIIe; lat. habitus « manière d être », « costume » 1 ♦ Sing. Vieilli Pièce d habillement. ⇒ costume, vêtement. L étoffe d un habit. Habit de velours. 2 ♦ Plur. LES HABITS : l ensemble des pièces composant l habillement. ⇒ affaires …   Encyclopédie Universelle

  • Habit — • Habit is an effect of repeated acts and an aptitude to reproduce them, and may be defined as a quality difficult to change, whereby an agent whose nature it is to work one way or another indeterminately, is disposed easily and readily at will… …   Catholic encyclopedia

  • habit — HABIT. s. m. Vestement, ce qui est fait exprés pour couvrir le corps humain, ce qui sert ordinairement à couvrir le corps humain. Habit d homme. habit de femme. habit decent, modeste. habit bien fait. habit mal fait. habit court. habit long.… …   Dictionnaire de l'Académie française

  • Habit — Hab it (h[a^]b [i^]t) n. [OE. habit, abit, F. habit, fr. L. habitus state, appearance, dress, fr. habere to have, be in a condition; prob. akin to E. have. See {Have}, and cf. {Able}, {Binnacle}, {Debt}, {Due}, {Exhibit}, {Malady.}] 1. The usual… …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • habit — n 1 Habit, habitude, practice, usage, custom, use, wont are comparable when they mean a way of behaving, doing, or proceeding that has become fixed by constant repetition. These words may be used also as collective or abstract nouns denoting… …   New Dictionary of Synonyms

  • Habit — may refer to: * Habit (psychology), an acquired pattern of behavior that often occurs automatically * Habituation, non associative learning in which there is a progressive diminution of behavioral response probability with repetition of a… …   Wikipedia

  • Habit — «Habit» Canción de Pearl Jam Álbum No Code Publicación 27 de agosto de 1996 Grabación …   Wikipedia Español

  • habit — [hab′it] n. [ME < OFr < L habitus, condition, appearance, dress < pp. of habere, to have, hold < IE base * ghabh , to grasp, take > GIVE] 1. Obs. costume; dress 2. a particular costume showing rank, status, etc.; specif., a) a… …   English World dictionary

  • habit — hȁbit (ȁbit) m DEFINICIJA dugačka muška haljina do gležnja sa širokim rukavima: 1. crkv. redovničko odijelo; halja 2. halja posebna oblika izrađena za određenu skupinu ljudi [sučev habit; rektorski habit; dekanski habit] ETIMOLOGIJA lat. habitus …   Hrvatski jezični portal

  • habit — {{/stl 13}}{{stl 8}}rz. mnż I, D. u, Mc. habiticie {{/stl 8}}{{stl 7}} strój zakonny o kolorze i kroju obowiązującym w danym zakonie; suknia zakonna : {{/stl 7}}{{stl 10}}Habit zakonny, franciszkański. <łac.>{{/stl 10}}{{stl 18}}ZOB. {{/stl …   Langenscheidt Polski wyjaśnień

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