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.
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Noun
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Examples of habit in a Sentence
Sammy Roth, Los Angeles Times, 16 Apr. 2024
Health officials say that because of tobacco’s addictive nature, preventing young people from picking up the habit could save millions of lives.
—Anna Gordon, TIME, 16 Apr. 2024
The exercises replicate the same habits that Wayne’s father and Ty’s grandfather, Walter Gretzky, taught Wayne.
—Skyler Trepel, Peoplemag, 12 Apr. 2024
Practices such as meal-prepping and buying in bulk have further centered reusable food containers in America’s eating habits.
—Amanda Mull, The Atlantic, 12 Apr. 2024
The Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) trend, a significant shift in shopping habits, emerged as a game-changer during the recent holiday season.
—Doc Louallen, ABC News, 12 Apr. 2024
The questions focus on potential jurors’ occupations, their family lives and even their media consumption habits.
—Brendan Rascius, Miami Herald, 12 Apr. 2024
According to Lies, one theory is that poor sleep can affect other lifestyle habits that contribute to blood pressure risk, creating a domino effect.
—Maggie O'Neill, Health, 10 Apr. 2024
Recognizing how hurtful this has been to others is a big step, not just for breaking the habit, but also for acknowledging how hurtful this has been to you.
—Carolyn Hax, Washington Post, 4 Apr. 2024
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'habit.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
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“Habit.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/habit. Accessed 19 Apr. 2024.
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habit
noun
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