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
Noun
Verb
Examples of habit in a Sentence
Discover Magazine, 7 Nov. 2024
Clearly, smoking is a habit that’s hard to kick in some respects, for Britain‘s new government, and for the fashion crowd.
—Hikmat Mohammed, WWD, 5 Nov. 2024
This pay-yourself-first approach makes saving a regular habit, reducing the mental effort required to stick to your strategy.
—True Tamplin, Forbes, 4 Nov. 2024
Aim for seven to eight hours per night (here’s a bedtime habit one sleep specialist swears by to help).
—Julia Ries, SELF, 4 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 22 Nov. 2024.
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habit
noun
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