▪ I. habit, n.
(ˈhæbɪt)
Forms: α. 3–5 abit, abyt, 3–6 abite, abyte, (5 abbyte, 6 abbit, -et(te, -ytte, Sc. -eit). β. 4–7 habite, 5–6 habyte, (5 habet, 6 habitt, habbet, -ett(e, Sc. habeit, 6–7 habette), 5– habit.
[a. OF. habit, abit (12th c. in Littré) = Pr. abit, habit, It. abito; ad. L. habitus, noun of action (u- stem), from habēre to have, refl. to be constituted, to be.
The sense development, as seen in Latin and the modern languages taken together, is thus: orig. Holding, having, ‘havour’; hence the way in which one holds or has oneself, i.e. the mode or condition in which one is, exists, or exhibits oneself, a) externally; hence demeanour, outward appearance, fashion of body, mode of clothing oneself, dress, habitation; b) in mind, character, or life; hence, mental constitution, character, disposition, way of acting, comporting oneself, or dealing with things, habitual or customary way (of acting, etc.), personal custom, accustomedness. This development was largely completed in ancient Latin, and had received some extension in OF., before the word became English; in our language, senses were taken, from time to time, from Fr. or L., without reference to their original order of development; hence the chronological order in Eng. is in no way parallel to the original; and the arrangement below is only partly chronological. In mod.F. the word is narrowed down to our branch I, other senses being supplied by habitude; thus Eng. ‘habit’ is co-extensive with the two French words, and its chief sense corresponds not to F. habit but to F. habitude.]
I. Fashion or mode of apparel, dress.
1. a. Bodily apparel or attire; clothing, raiment, dress. arch.
| a 1225 Ancr. R. 12 Þe onnesse of o luue & of o wil, þet heo alle habbeð imene wiðinnen hore abit, þet is on. 13.. E.E. Allit. P. B. 141 Þe abyt þat þou hatz vpon, no halyday hit menskez. 1483 Caxton Gold. Leg. 68/1 Saul thenne changed his habyte and clothyng and dyde on other clothyng. 1592 R. Johnson 9 Worthies F iij, The verie aspect of his outwarde abite. 1607 Shakes. Timon iv. iii. 113 It is her habite onely, that is honest, Her selfe's a Bawd. 1634 Sir T. Herbert Trav. 24 Their habit like to Adams, a few Plaintaine leaves only fixt about their middles. 1651 Evelyn Diary 6 Sept., He went about in womens habite. 1725 Pope Odyss. iv. 336 In the vile habit of a village slave. 1809 N. Pinkney Trav. France 111 The chief peculiarity in his habit was a deep lace ruff. |
b. with
a and
pl. A set or suit of clothes, a dress (of some specified kind).
arch.| a 1420 Hoccleve De Reg. Princ. 414 Undir an olde poore habite reignethe ofte Grete vertu. c 1440 Gesta Rom. lxvi. 305 (Harl. MS.) Weddid..In a simple Abyt. 1521 Mem. Ripon (Surtees) I. 183 To have oon abbit after such fourme. c 1665 Mrs. Hutchinson Mem. Col. Hutchinson (1846) 348 The colonel himself had on that day a habit which was pretty rich but grave. a 1691 Boyle Hist. Air (1692) 170 Being thinly clothed with one of the digger's habits. 1761–2 Hume Hist. Eng. (1806) III. 465 She dressed herself in a rich habit of silk and velvet. 1770 Langhorne Plutarch (1879) I. 104/1 Women..were not to go out of town with more than three habits. 1808 Sk. Charact. (1813) I. 180 [They] went on horseback, in a uniform habit, all blue and silver. |
c. pl. Clothes, garments, habiliments.
arch.| c 1477 Caxton Jason 81 b, Lo here my habytes that be requysite. 1598 Yong Diana 257 Your habites denie you to be of any place heereabouts. 1634 Milton Comus 157 Lest the place And my quaint habits breed astonishment. 1734 tr. Rollin's Anc. Hist. (1827) V. 170 The latter had put on women's habits over their armour. 1796 Morse Amer. Geog. II. 271 [The bodies of] two princes in the habits they used to wear. |
d. Hence in
sing. A garment; a gown or robe.
arch.| 1714 Gay Trivia i. 43 Thy Doily Habit. 1728 T. Sheridan Persius v. (1739) 66 The Toga was the Habit worn in Peace. 1771 Mrs. Harris in Priv. Lett. Ld. Malmesbury I. 214 Mr. Cambridge borrowed a dress for her, which was pretty and fine, the habit muslin with green and gold sprigs, with a turban and veil. 1852 A. Jameson Leg. Madonna (1857) 19 St. Catherine of Siena, her habit spangled with stars. |
e. transf. and
fig. Outward form or appearance; guise; ‘dress’, ‘garb’.
| 1549 Coverdale, etc. Erasm. Par. Heb. 2 Hauing vpon hym the habite of mans body. 1618 Wither Motto, Nec Habeo Wks. (1633) 518, I will ever finde Meanes to maintaine a habit for my Minde Of Truth in graine. 1669 Gale Crt. Gentiles i. i. ii. §9 Though Plato thus..disfigured the habit of his Jewish Traditions. 1824 Longfellow Autumn 5 The silvery habit of the clouds. a 1839 Praed Poems II. 13 Tory to-day, and Whig to-morrow, All habits and all shapes he wore. |
2. spec. a. The dress or attire characteristic of a particular rank, degree, profession, or function;
esp. the dress of a religious order;
the habit, the monastic order or profession (
cf. ‘the cowl’).
| c 1290 S. Eng. Leg. I. 20/45 Him-sulf he nam þe Abite þere: and Monek formest bi-cam. c 1330 R. Brunne Chron. (1810) 172 His abite he gan forsake, his ordre lete alle doune. 1362 Langl. P. Pl. A. Prol. 3 In Habite of an Hermite. [1393 C. In Abit as an Ermite.] c 1386 Chaucer Monk's T. 353 In kinges abyt went hir sones tuo. c 1430 Hymns Virg. (1867) 67 Goo stele an abite, & bicome a frere. 1538 Starkey England i. iv. 127 Frerys whome you wold juge to be borne in the habyte, they are so lytyl and yong. 1642 Howell For. Trav. (Arb.) 50 So that a Biscayner is capable to be a Cavalier of any of the three habits. 1673 Ray Journ. Low C. 17 The several Faculties..are distinguished by their Habits: Divinity-Students wear constantly Gowns and square Caps. 1709 Strype Ann. Ref. I. xliii. 471 Puritans, that is, such as refused the habits. 1777 Robertson Hist. Amer. (1778) II. v. 129 Magellan, whom the king honoured with the habit of St. Jago. 1827 Hallam Const. Hist. (1876) I. ii. 102 The foreign reformers then in England..expressed their dissatisfaction in seeing these habits retained. 1894 J. T. Fowler Adamnan Introd. 77 While walking his hands were clasped under his habit. |
b. In the Greek Church:
lesser habit, the dress of the proficients or monastics of the second degree.
great habit or
great angelic habit, the dress of the monastics of the third degree, termed the perfects.
| 1772 J. G. King Grk. Ch. Russia 366 [After completing their novitiate] they proceed to take the lesser habit or χήµα. Ibid., They take..last of all, the great angelic habit. |
3. = riding-habit: A dress worn by ladies on horseback; a lady's riding-dress.
| [1666 Evelyn Diary 13 Sept., The Queene was now in her cavalier riding habit. 1711 Steele Spect. No. 104 ¶3 The Model of this Amazonian Hunting-Habit for Ladies, was, as I take it, first imported from France.] 1798 Jane Austen Northang. Abb. (1870) II. vi. 130 Her habit therefore was thrown off with all possible haste. 1824 Scott Redgauntlet ch. xvii, The elegant compromise betwixt male and female attire, which has now acquired, par excellence, the name of a habit. 1855 Tennyson Maud i. xx. i, Whether The habit, hat, and feather, Or the frock and gipsy bonnet Be the neater and completer. 1879 G. J. Whyte-Melville Riding Recoll. vii. (ed. 7) 121 The habit and the side-saddle. 1882 M. E. Braddon Mt. Royal vii, The St. Aubyn girls were breakfasting in their habits and hats. |
II. External deportment, constitution, or appearance; habitation.
† 4. Bearing, demeanour, deportment, behaviour; posture.
Obs.| 1413 Pilgr. Sowle (Caxton 1483) iv. v. 60 Me semyth by semblaunt and by habyte that ye shold be Iustyce. 1489 Caxton Faytes of A. iii. i. 168 A stately man of habyte of chere and of maynten. 1586 Marlowe 1st. Pt. Tamburl. i. ii, Noble and mild this Persian seems to be, If outward habit judge the inward man. 1613 Purchas Pilgrimage (1614) 154 So of lying or other habit of body. 1642 Rogers Naaman 29 The habit and behaviour of this great Prince. 1687 Sedley Bellam. iii. Wks. 1722 II. 136 What's the meaning of this Habit? I never saw a man so overjoy'd. |
5. a. Bodily condition or constitution.
| 1576 Fleming Panopl. Epist. Epit. A ij b, Of the habite of his body, or corporall proportion..hee is a faire and well favoured Gentleman. 1626 Bacon Sylva §354 Cardamon which..made them grow better, and be of a more active habit. 1711 Addison Spect. No. 3 ¶3 She would revive..out of a wasting Distemper, into a Habit of the highest Health and Vigour. 1727–51 Chambers Cycl., Habit, in medicine, is what we otherwise call the temperament or constitution of the body; whether obtained by birth, or occasioned by the manner of living. 1782 Priestly Corrupt. Chr. I. ii. 211 A being..of a delicate tender habit. 1791 Burke App. Whigs Wks. VI. 136 To bring the patient to a better habit. 1812 T. Amyot Windham I. 4 A victim to a consumptive habit. 1844 Disraeli Coningsby i. i, Originally..of a spare habit, but now a little inclined to corpulency. |
† b. concr. The bodily ‘system’.
| 1589 Cogan Haven Health (1636) 4 Least..any of the excrements should hastily be received into the habit of the body. 1652 French Yorksh. Spa x. 91 If it be retained in the habit of the body and veins. 1727–51 Chambers Cycl. s.v., A thing is said to enter the habit, when it becomes intimately diffused throughout the body, and is conveyed to the remotest stages of circulation. 1733 Cheyne Eng. Malady ii. iii. §2 (1734) 138 Water..would..dissolve these..Concretions..and help to carry them out of the Habit. |
† c. The outer part, surface, or external appearance of the body.
| 1652 French Yorksh. Spa xii. 98 The humours being drawn outwardly towards the habit of the body. 1671 Grew Anat. Plants iii. ii. §3 (1682) 127 Some Parts of Aer, may continually pass into the Body and Blood, by the Habit, or Pores of the Skin. 1725 N. Robinson Th. Physick 316 The crass, dispirited Serum settles in the Legs, and every where outwardly upon the Habit. |
6. Zool. and
Bot. The characteristic mode of growth and general external appearance of an animal or plant. Hence
transf.;
e.g. in
Cryst. the characteristic mode of formation of a crystal.
| 1691 Ray Creation (1714) 22 The same insect under a different Larva or Habit. 1794 Martyn Rousseau's Bot. xxxii. 492 You know them by their air, or habit, as botanists usually call it. 1826 Kirby & Sp. Entomol. IV. 551 When..you know the name of one species, and find another of the same general habit. 1854 Hooker Himal. Jrnls. II. xxi. 99 Plants..of a tufted habit. 1870 ― Stud. Flora 34 Exotic species with the habit of Nasturtium. 1875 Whitney Life Lang. v. 90 Languages of other habit than ours. 1895 Story-Maskelyne Crystallogr. vi. §151 Such differences, then, may generally be held to indicate a mero-symmetrical habit. |
† 7. Habitation, abode. [So in
OF.]
Obs. rare.
| 1603 Florio Montaigne i. xxii. (1632) 47 Our greatest vices make their first habit in us, from our infancie. |
III. Mental constitution, disposition, custom.
8. The way in which a person is mentally or morally constituted; the sum of the mental and moral qualities; mental constitution, disposition, character.
| c 1386 Chaucer Knt.'s T. 520 And shortly turned was al vp so doun Bothe habit and eek disposicioun Of hym. 1579 Lyly Euphues (Arb.) 53 If we respect more the outward shape, then the inward habit. 1621 Burton Anat. Mel. i. i. iii. xi. (1651) 30 The principal Habits are two in number, Vertue and Vice. 1690 Norris Beatitudes (1692) 181 It argues a good Habit of Mind. 1719 Young Revenge i. i, You..suit the gloomy habit of my soul. 1895 Bookman Oct. 27/1 The lecture plan and the lecturer's habit of mind are visible throughout. |
9. a. A settled disposition or tendency to act in a certain way,
esp. one acquired by frequent repetition of the same act until it becomes almost or quite involuntary; a settled practice, custom, usage; a customary way or manner of acting. (The most usual current sense. Properly said of living beings; in
mod. use occasionally of inanimate things.)
[There is no etymological ground for the distinctive use of ‘habit’ for an
acquired tendency; but in philosophical language, such a sense occurs already in Cicero,
Inv. 1, 25, 36, ‘habitum appellamus..item corporis aliquam commoditatem, non natura datam, sed studio et industria partam’. The sense is late in
Fr. and
Eng.:
Cotgr. has ‘
Habit..also an habit; a fashion setled, a vse or custome gotten’.]
| 1581 G. Pettie tr. Guazzo's Civ. Conv. i. (1586) 4 b, By long studie and great contemplation..got an habite and custome to be melancholike. 1591 Shakes. Two Gent. v. iv. 1 How vse doth breed a habit in a man. 1647 Cowley Mistress, Soul ii, That constant they as Habits grow. 1656 tr. Hobbes' Elem. Philos. (1839) 348 Habit is motion made more easy and ready by custom. 1662 J. Davies tr. Olearius' Voy. Ambass. 89 Being thus used from their Childhood, and that habit being as it were converted into a second nature. 1678 Cudworth Intell. Syst. 158 Habits are said to be an Adventitious and Acquired Nature, and Nature was before defined by the Stoicks to be ἕξις, or a Habit: so that there seems to be no other Difference between these two, than this, that whereas the One is Acquired by Teaching, Industry and Exercise; the other..is..inspired by the Divine Art and Wisdom. 1727 Swift Gulliver iv. xii, Although it be hard for a man late in life to remove old habits. 1834 Medwin Angler in Wales I. 18 A dog who once takes to worry sheep never leaves off the habit. 1836–7 Sir W. Hamilton Metaph. (1877) I. x. 178 Both..are tendencies to action; but..disposition properly denotes a natural tendency, habit an acquired tendency. 1837 Carlyle Fr. Rev. I. ii. iii, System of Habits, in a word, fixed ways of acting and believing. Mod. The chimney has a habit of smoking when the fire is first lighted. |
b. (Without
a or
pl.): Custom, usage, use, wont.
| 1605 Bacon Adv. Learn. ii. xxii. §8 But allowing his [Aristotle's] conclusion, that virtues and vices consist in habit. 1658 Dryden On the Death of Cromwell xxxvi, Faction now by habit does obey. 1690 Locke Hum. Und. ii. xxiii. (1695) 156 Which power or ability in Man of doing any thing, when it has been acquired by frequent doing the same thing, is that Idea, we name Habit. 1802 Paley Nat. Theol. xxvi. (1819) 449 Habit, the instrument of nature, is a great leveller; the familiarity which it induces, taking off the edge both of our pleasures and of our sufferings. 1876 Mozley Univ. Serm. vii. 151 It is of the nature of habit to make acts easier and easier. |
c. (Usually in
pl.) Applied to the natural or instinctive practices characteristic of particular kinds of animals, and to natural tendencies of plants.
| 1774 Goldsm. Nat. Hist. II. iv. i, Many of its [the cat's] habits..are rather the consequences of its formation. 1834 Medwin Angler in Wales I. 263 A singular exception in the habits of creatures of the feline species. 1852 Wood Nat. Hist. (1862) I. 584 Resembling the hare in general appearance and in many of its habits, the Rabbit is readily distinguished..by its smaller dimensions. 1880 C. & F. Darwin Movem. Pl. 128 Some relation between the habit of cotyledons rising vertically at night or going to sleep, and their sensitiveness..to a touch. |
d. in the habit († habits) of doing something: having a habit or custom of so doing. So
to fall or get into the habit.
| 1801 C. Smith Solitary Wand. II. 287 [He] had..for near two years been in habits of occasional access to him. 1829 K. Digby Broadst. Hon. I. 66 Some very wise and devout men have been in habits of reading these romances. 1849 Macaulay Hist. Eng. I. 176 He was little in the habit of resisting importunate solicitation. 1879 B. Taylor Stud. Germ. Lit. 128 The world has fallen into a bad habit of naming everything after something else. |
e. spec. in
Psychol. An automatic, ‘mechanical’ reaction to a specific situation which usually has been acquired by learning and/or repetition.
| 1859 A. Bain Emotions & Will ix. 519 Some natures are distinguished by plasticity or the power of acquisition, and therefore realize more closely the saying that man is a bundle of habits. 1871 E. B. Tylor Primitive Culture I. i. 1 Custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society. 1890 W. James Princ. Psychol. I. iv. 104 The moment one tries to define what habit is, one is led to the fundamental properties of matter. The laws of Nature are nothing but the immutable habits which the different sorts of elementary matter follow in their actions and reactions upon each other. 1956 E. R. Hilgard Theories of Learning (ed. 2) i. 10 The stimulus-response theorist and the cognitive theorist come up with different answers to the question, What is learned? The answer of the former is ‘habits’; the answer of the latter is ‘cognitive structures’. |
f. The practice of taking addictive drugs (see also
quot. 1914).
colloq. (
orig. U.S.).
| 1887 in Amer. Speech (1948) XXIII. 246/2 May he continue to wage war against them [sc. Chinese opium dens] until the habit has been swept entirely out of existence. 1894 [see opiumate]. 1914 Jackson & Hellyer Vocab. Criminal Slang 41 Habit, current amongst dope fiends. Necessity for opiates; a craving; the condition produced by habitual indulgence in drugs... Example: ‘I must drop into the hotel donegan (lavatory) and fire (take a hypodermic injection), for I feel my habit coming on.’ 1926 J. Black You can't Win xii. 161 The sufferings they would undergo when there was no more and the ‘habit’ came on. 1959 Daily Mail 17 Oct. 7/3 ‘Do you have the habit?’ He knew she meant ‘Do you take drugs?’ |
† 10. The condition of being accustomed to something through having constantly to do with it; familiarity.
on intimate habits: on intimate terms, familiar. (
Cf. habitude 3.)
Obs.| 1586 B. Young tr. Guazzo's Civ. Conv. iv. 208 b, Why..cannot he discourse better of them, who hath had a longer and continuall habit in them? 1600 J. Pory tr. Leo's Africa ii. 414 By getting an habite of their languages and customes. 1704 Hearne Duct. Hist. (1714) I. 399 Being brought up in this Discipline from Children, they acquir'd a Habit in Science. 1770 Burke Pres. Discont. Wks. 1842 I. 147 The habit of affairs, if, on one hand, it tends to corrupt the mind, furnishes it, on the other, with the means of better information. 1809 Scott Fam. Lett. 15 Aug. (1894) I. 144 They are on most intimate habits. 1810 Sporting Mag. 154 Those who were in the habits of his society. 1859 Lever Davenport Dunn ii. (1872) 20 ‘One gets a habit of the kind of people’, said Lady Lackington. |
IV. Literal rendering of L.
habitus in Logic.
† 11. Logic. The eighth of the categories or predicaments of Aristotle; Having or possession: in
Gr. ἔχειν, L.
habitus. (See
category 1.)
Obs. (Like the other categories, very variously understood and misunderstood by writers on logic.)
| 1588 Fraunce Lawiers Log. i. xi. 49 b, The affirmative is called the habite, the negative the privation thereof. 1628 T. Spencer Logick 93 To haue the habit, and to be deprived of the habit are opposed. 1697 tr. Burgersdicius his Logic i. ix. 30 Habit is a manner after which clothes, or anything like clothes are put about the body, appended, or in any way adjoined to it. 1837 Whewell Hist. Induct. Sc. (1857) I. 209 The Categories are the ten heads under which assertions or predications may be arranged;—substance, quantity, relation, quality, time, place, position, habit, action, passion. |
V. 12. Comb., as (sense 1, 3)
habit-bodice,
habit-maker,
habit-man,
habit-shop,
habit-skirt; (sense 9,
esp. 9 e)
habit-bound adj.;
habit-breaker,
habit-formation;
habit-forming vbl. n. and
adj.,
habit-worn adj.;
† habit-wise adv.;
habit-cloth, a light broadcloth used for riding-habits and other outer garments;
habit-memory, one of the two kinds of memory first distinguished by H. Bergson, which consists of motor mechanisms or ‘habits’ fixed in the organism and which acts in response to an appropriate stimulus,
e.g. when repeating a lesson learnt by heart;
habit-neurosis, a neurosis caused by habit-bound behaviour;
habit pattern, a pattern of behaviour created by habit;
habit-response, a response induced by habit;
habit-shirt, a kind of chemisette with linen collar, worn by women under the outer bodice;
habit spasm Med.,
= tic 1;
habit strength (see
quot. 1958); also called sHr;
habit-training, the training of an infant or child in regular habits of behaviour, often specifically referring to hygiene, sleeping, and eating.
| 1892 Daily News 2 July 6/7 The becoming *habit-bodice of old, cut away on the hips and fitting like a good glove. |
| 1863 J. G. Whittier Poetical Wks. (1874) 412/2 But what if, *habit-bound, thy feet Shall lack the will to turn? 1922 W. B. Yeats Trembling of Veil 140 Old and habit-bound. |
| 1932 Brit. Jrnl. Psychol. July 54 Box 7 [in set of boxes designed for intelligence testing] was introduced as a *habit breaker. |
| 1913 Lancet 27 Sept. 964/2 (title) A preliminary note on *habit-formation in guinea⁓pigs. 1936 Mind XLV. 290 All habit-formation under the example, instruction, command, influence, of others is propaganda. 1961 Lancet 27 Aug. 485/1 Narcotics had not been used for fear of habit-formation. |
| 1899 W. James Talks to Teachers on Psychol. p. viii, Maxims relative to *habit-forming. 1913 A. E. Leach Food Inspection & Analysis (ed. 3) xxi. 955 (heading) Habit-forming drugs in beverages. 1958 J. Cannan And be a Villain vii. 151, I didn't take any [sleeping pills] last night because if you keep on they might become habit-forming. |
| 1819 P.O. Lond. Direct. 84 Tailors and *Habit-Makers. |
| 1769 Stratford Jubilee i. i. 12 That valuable creature Mr. Pasquin the *habit-man. |
| 1911 Paul & Palmer tr. Bergson's Matter & Memory ii. 99 (marginal note of translators) Automatism has a wide range, and representative memory is often superseded or masked by *habit memory. 1912 Mind XXI. 226 M. Bergson, in contrasting these two forms of memory, makes the motor or habit-memory too mechanical. 1925 C. Fox Educ. Psychol. 140 Take two processes, habit-memory and image-memory respectively. |
| 1907 W. James Mem. & Stud. (1911) x. 239 There seems no doubt that we are each and all of us to some extent victims of *habit-neurosis. |
| 1960 G. Sanders Mem. Professional Cad ii. iv. 133 Once a man has acquired this *habit pattern it will be intolerable for him to stay home at night. 1964 Word Study Feb. 2/2 Finalize and dollar-wise were deep-seated habit patterns long before Webster's Third displayed them. |
| 1960 B. Malinowski Sex & Repress. Savage Soc. 194 The zoologist deals with specific instinctive behaviour, the anthropologist with a culturally fashioned *habit-response. |
| 1834 J. R. Planché Brit. Costume 245 A covering for the neck and throat, similar to what is now called a *habit-shirt. |
| 1751 Eliza Heywood Betsy Thoughtless I. 40 The woman at the *habit-shop in Covent-garden. |
| 1894 Daily News 20 June 6/4 The *habit skirt of to-day is surmounted by a riding jacket, generally of a totally different colour. |
| 1888 W. R. Gowers Man. Dis. Nervous Syst. II. v. 586 Children often..present spasmodic movements such as winking, twitching the mouth, jerking the head..which the individuals are unable to control... This condition has been termed ‘habit-chorea’..but..‘*habit-spasm’ is, I think, a better name. 1940 S. A. K. Wilson Neurology II. 1629 In France the word ‘tic’ has been employed for centuries to denote a habitual, unpleasing gesture; but only within the last 30 years has it been current in English neurology, replacing the incorrect ‘habit-spasm’ or ‘habit-chorea’ of prior date. |
| 1948 E. R. Hilgard Theories of Learning iv. 83 *Habit strength increases when receptor and effector activities occur in close temporal contiguity. 1951 C. L. Hull Essentials of Behavior xiv. 57 We have presented evidence..to indicate the quantitative molar law according to which habit strength (sHr), primary motivation or drive (D), incentive motivation (K)..and the delay in reinforcement (J) respectively operate as functions in the determination of reaction potential. 1958 H. B. & A. C. English Dict. Psychol. Terms 235/2 Habit strength or sHr, (C. Hull) an inferred part of the organism that is determined by variation in four empirical determinants: number of reinforcements, amount of reinforcing agents, time between stimulation and response, time between response and reinforcement. 1959 Lambert & Fillenbaum in Saporta & Bastian Psycholinguistics (1961) vii. 455/1 An important paper by Pitres..offered a different generalization in order to account for..the effect of aphasia on polyglots. In essence, Pitres' is a habit strength principle which states that the language or languages most used before the aphasic insult will be the first to recover. |
| 1927 A. Gesell in C. W. Kimmins Mental & Physical Welfare of Child iii. 40 Wholesome *habit training in infancy lays the foundation of mental health... Feeding, sleeping, bladder control, bowel control—these are not physical matters. They are ‘mental’. 1939 E. R. Boyce Infant School Activities 240 Habit-training. The nursery school and class has been closely associated with training in good physical habits and with attention to the health of the child. 1960 I. Bennett Del. & Neur. Childr. v. 181 Difficulties in habit-training may be expected in both delinquent and neurotic children. Both types..are likely to express early difficulties in the form of sleep disturbances, feeding disturbances, or disturbances in bladder or bowel control. |
| a 1626 Bp. Andrewes Serm. xix. (1661) 389 His vigour..holdeth out *habit-wise. |
| 1890 W. James Princ. Psychol. I. xvi. 655 These *habit-worn paths of association are a clear rendering of what authors mean by ‘predispositions’, ‘vestiges’, ‘traces’, etc., left in the brain by past experience. |
▪ II. ˈhabit, ppl. a. Sc. Law.
Also 8
habite.
[ad. L. habit-us, pa. pple. of habēre to have, hold.] Held, holden: in the legal phrase
habit and repute,
repr. a
med.L.
habitus et reputatus, in earlier times translated
halden and repute (or reputit),
i.e. held and reputed (to be so and so).
| [1503 Sc. Acts Jas. IV, c. 23 Þe woman..beand repute & haldin as his lachtfull wif. 1551–2 Eccles. Scot. Statuta 135 Quæ talium baptizatorum parentes communiter habentur et reputantur. 1681 Stair Inst. Law Scot. iv. xlv. §4 (1693) 704 In the serving of..terces of relicts, ‘commonly holden and repute’ is sufficient.] 1753 Scots Mag. Sept. 469/1 As habite and repute a common..thief. 1773 Erskine Inst. Law Scot. i. 86 It is presumed or inferred from cohabitation..joined to their being habite, or held, and reputed, man and wife. 1861 W. Bell Dict. Law Scotl. s.v., If the person..be habit and repute a thief—i.e. one who notoriously makes or helps his livelihood by thieving. Ibid. s.v., Execution, It is sufficient..that the person..shall have been at the time habit and repute qualified. |
b. The phrase
habit and repute is also used quasi-
subst. for: The fact of being commonly held and reputed (what is indicated by the context).
| 1754 Erskine Princ. Sc. Law (1890) 57 If there has been cohabitation and habit and repute for a sufficient time after the parties were free to marry. 1838 W. Bell Dict. Law Scotl. s.v., Thus marriage may be constituted by habit and repute..So also habit and repute is an aggravation of a special act of theft. [By a recent Act, habit and repute is no longer made matter of charge in the libel.] |
▪ III. habit, v. (
ˈhæbɪt)
[a. F. habite-r to have dealings with, possess, cohabit, dwell, inhabit, ad. L. habit-āre to have possession of, inhabit, dwell, abide, f. habit-, ppl. stem of habēre: see prec.] † 1. intr. To dwell, abide, reside, sojourn.
Obs.| ? a 1366 Chaucer Rom. Rose 660 That in her swete song delyten In thilke places as they habyten. 1483 Caxton Cato A viij b, Many men habyten and dwellyn by fayth in the cytees. a 1592 Greene Alphonsus i. i, Although he habit on the earth. 1649 Earl of Monmouth tr. Senault's Use Passions (1671) 36 Contraries cannot lodge or habit together. |
2. trans. To dwell in, inhabit.
arch.| 1598 Hakluyt Voy. I. 435 (R.) Some other towne or place habited, vpon or neer the border of it. 1601 Holland Pliny I. 48 The shore of the æthyopian Ocean, which now is habited. 1847 D. G. Mitchell Fresh Glean. (1851) 250 Hinzelmann who once habited an old castle. 1891 H. S. Merriman Prisoners & Captives III. xi. 185 Unless they had habited different parts of the globe. |
3. To dress, clothe, attire. (Usually in
pa. pple.)
| 1588 Shakes. Tit. A. ii. iii. 57 Or is it Dian habited like her? 1656 Stanley Hist. Philos. v. (1701) 174/2 They went proudly habited. 1696 Bp. Patrick Comm. Exod. xxix, The High Priest was first habited, and then his Sons. 1737 Whiston Josephus Antiq. xviii. iii. §2 He habited a great number of soldiers in their habit. 1866 Mrs. H. Wood St. Martin's Eve xxiv, To habit herself as she deemed suitable for her journey. 1889 D. C. Murray Dangerous Catspaw 55 A group of girls, habited in white flannel. |
| fig. 1654 Trapp Comm. Ezra viii. 16 Good matter well habited. a 1658 Ford, etc. Witch Edmonton ii. ii, Thy liking is a Glass By which I'll habit my behaviour. |
† 4. To accustom, familiarize, habituate;
pa. pple. accustomed, practised, used (
to or
in).
Obs.| 1615 Chapman Odyss. v. (R.), O y'are a shrewd one; and so habited In taking heed. 1627–77 Feltham Resolves ii. iv. 166 A generation of men..That are so habited in falsehood. a 1661 Fuller Worthies (1840) II. 199 He was so habited to poisons, they became food unto him. 1782 Paine Let. Abbé Raynal (1791) 63 A mind habited to meanness and injustice. 1814 Southey Roderick xx. 11 Habited in crimes. |
† b. To turn into a habit, render habitual.
Obs.| 1627–77 Feltham Resolves ii. lxiii. 293 When Vices habit themselves into custom and manners. 1660 Fuller Mixt Contempl. (1841) 204 Customary sins, habited in us by practice and presumption. |