habit

verb

habited; habiting; habits

transitive verb

literary

: to cover with or as if with clothing : clothe

… she habited herself in a peculiarly becoming dress of white linen …

—E. F. Benson

(figurative) It is the nature of such pedantry to habit itself in a harsh and crabbed style.

—Richard M. Weaver

Did you know?

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 of habit

• clothe
• dress
• toilet
• attire
• costume
• deck (out)
• garment
• rig (out)
• gown

Examples of habit in a Sentence

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

Word History

Etymology

First Known Use

1594, in the meaning defined above

Phrases Containing habit

• by/from force of habit
• creature of habit
• fell into the habit
• force of habit
• habit-forming

Rhymes for habit

• abbot
• rabbit
• sabot
• shabbat
• cohabit
• inhabit
• jackrabbit

Kids Definition

habit

noun

hab·​it

ˈhab-ət

1

: a costume characteristic of an occupation, rank, or function

her riding habit

a nun's habit

2

: a usual manner of behavior or thinking

his habit of taking a morning walk

3

: a way of behaving that has become fixed by being repeated often compare reflex entry 1 sense 1

4

: characteristic way of growing or occurring

elms have a spreading habit

Medical Definition

habit

noun

hab·​it ˈhab-ət 

1

: bodily appearance or makeup especially as indicative of one's capacities and condition

a man of fleshy habit

2

: a settled tendency or usual manner of behavior

3

a

: a behavior pattern acquired by frequent repetition or physiological exposure that shows itself in regularity or increased facility of performance

the daily bowel habit

b

: an acquired mode of behavior that has become nearly or completely involuntary

locked the door through force of habit

c

: addiction

was forced to steal to support his drug habit

4

: characteristic mode of growth or occurrence