habitude

From Middle English habitude, from Middle French habitude, from Latin habitūdō (“condition, plight, habit, appearance”), from habeō (“I have, hold, keep”).

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈhæbɪˌtjuːd/
• Rhymes: -uːd

habitude (countable and uncountable, plural habitudes)

1. (archaic) The essential character of one's being or existence; native or normal constitution; mental or moral constitution; bodily condition; native temperament.
   • 1609, William Shakespeare, “A Louers Complaint”, in Shake-speares Sonnets. […], London: By G[eorge] Eld for T[homas] T[horpe] and are to be sold by William Aspley, →OCLC:

     His real habitude gave life and grace / To appertainings and to ornament.

2. (archaic) Habitual disposition; normal or characteristic mode of behaviour, whether from habit or from nature
   • 1683, John Dryden, Life of Plutarch (21)

     An habitude of commanding his passions in order to his health.

   • 1891, Thomas Hardy, Tess of the d’Urbervilles: A Pure Woman Faithfully Presented […], volumes (please specify |volume=I to III), London: James R[ipley] Osgood, McIlvaine and Co., […], →OCLC:

     [T]here was something of the habitude of the wild animal in the unreflecting instinct with which she rambled on — disconnecting herself by littles from her eventful past at every step, obliterating her identity […]

   • 1895, S. R. Crockett, A Cry Across the Black Water:

     With the instinct of old habitude they fell to the oars, Barbara rowing the better and the stronger.

3. (obsolete) Behaviour or manner of existence in relation to something else; relation; respect.
   • 1732, George Berkeley, “The Fourth Dialogue”, in Alciphron: Or, The Minute Philosopher. […], volume I, London: […] J[acob] Tonson […], →OCLC, section XXI, page 256:

     And although Proportion ſtrictly ſignifies the Habitude or Relation of one Quantity to another, yet, in a looſer and tranſlated Senſe, it hath been applied to ſignify every other Habitude; and conſequently the Term Analogy comes to ſignify all Similitude or Relations, or Habitudes vvhatſoever.

4. (obsolete) In full habitude: fully, wholly, entirely; in all respects.
   • a. 1662 (date written), Thomas Fuller, The History of the Worthies of England, London: […] J[ohn] G[rismond,] W[illiam] L[eybourne] and W[illiam] G[odbid], published 1662, →OCLC, page 165:

     Although I believe not the report in full habitude.

5. (obsolete) habitual association; familiar relation; acquaintance; familiarity; intimacy; association; intercourse.
   • 1640–1706, John Evelyn, “(please specify the date of the diary entry)”, in William Bray, editor, Memoirs, Illustrative of the Life and Writings of John Evelyn, […], 2nd edition, volumes (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Henry Colburn, […]; and sold by John and Arthur Arch, […], published 1819, →OCLC:

     The discourse of some with whom I have had some habitudes since my coming home.

6. (obsolete) an associate; an acquaintance; someone with whom one is familiar.
   • 1676, George Etherege, The Man of Mode (4.1)

     La Corneus and Sallyes were the only habitudes we had.

7. Habit; custom; usage.
   • 1599, James I of England, Basilikon Doron (28)

     Which […] by long habitude, are thought rather vertue than vice among them.

8. (obsolete, chemistry, in the plural) The various ways in which one substance reacts with another; chemical reaction.
   • 1818, Michael Faraday, Experimental Researches in Chemistry and Physics (32)

     Most authors who have had occasion to describe naphthaline, have noticed its habitudes with sulphuric acid.

• John A. Simpson and Edmund S. C. Weiner, editors (1989), “habitude”, in The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition, Oxford: Clarendon Press, →ISBN.

From Latin habitūdō.

• ^{(mute h)} IPA^(key): /a.bi.tyd/

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habitude f (plural habitudes)

1. habit (action done on a regular basis)

• avoir habitude
• d’habitude
• par habitude

• “habitude”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

habitude (plural habitudes)

1. habit (action done on a regular basis)

First known attestation 1365,[1] borrowed from Latin habitūdō. The meaning 'habit' seems to have developed under the influence of habituer (“to habituate” reflexively “to become habituated”).

habitude f (plural habitudes)

1. relationship
2. habit (action done on a regular basis)