customary

Etymology

The noun, a book of customs, is borrowed from Medieval Latin custumarium (“book of customs”),^[2][3][4] the noun use of the neuter of custumarius;^[2][3][5] French had the corresponding coutumier from 1396.^[2] The adjective is partly from customarius, also custumarius, which in British sources from the 13th century was used of land held by service, of bound tenants and their dues, and later for habitual,^[2] and partly formed from English custom + -ary.^[2] The Latin word was formed from custuma (“custom”),^[2][3][4] from Anglo-Norman custume,^[3][4] with the suffix -ārius;^[2] Merriam-Webster also names Old French costumier as a step,^[5] and Klein derives the word from it.^[6] Custom itself goes back through costume to Latin cōnsuētūdō (“habit, usage”), from cōnsuēscō (“to accustom”).^[7] The classical Latin adjective was cōnsuētūdinārius (compare English consuetudinary);^[2][5] Etymonline traces the Medieval Latin word to it.^[7] The spellings with -o- in the first syllable were reshaped after custom.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

As a noun, a document or book of the customs of a city or region: 1413–19, in a London record.^[2] As an adjective, in law, of land held by manorial custom and owing services to the lord: 1511–12, in an Act of Henry VIII.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The word began in the language of law and administration.^[2][7] Etymonline gives "liable to customs or dues" as the first sense of the adjective, in the 1520s,^[7] and Merriam-Webster dates that legal sense to 1523.^[5] The OED records customary of a payment exacted as a tax from about 1534, and of law based on custom rather than statute from 1552.^[2] The general sense, in keeping with the customs of a community, traditional, follows in 1569, and "habitual, usual", of a person's own practice, in 1574;^[2] Etymonline dates "according to established usage" to about 1600.^[7] Johnson (1755) gave three senses: conformable to custom, habitual, and usual, quoting Shakespeare's "customary gown".^[8] In the Church the noun came to mean the book of a monastery's or cathedral's rules and usages (from 1676).^[2] Earlier English words for "customary" were custumal and custumable.^[7] In the English Dialect Dictionary a customary acre in Herefordshire was two-thirds of a statute acre, customary land in Lincolnshire was land held by copyhold, and in Aberdeenshire a customary weaver wove for private customers.^[9] A separate noun customary, the office of a collector of customs, formed from customer, was used from 1494 to 1618.^[2]

Timeline

• 1413–19 – noun, a book or record of the customs of a place.^[2]
• 1511–12 – of land held by manorial custom.^[2]
• 1523 – liable to customs or dues.^[5][7]
• c. 1534 – of a payment exacted as a tax.^[2]
• 1552 – of law based on custom.^[2]
• 1569 – in accordance with the customs of a society; traditional.^[2]
• 1574 – habitual, usual.^[2]
• 1676 – noun, a book of a monastery's or church's rules and practices.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. In keeping with custom or habitual practice; usual: She took her customary seat by the window.^[10][5][2]
2. (law) Based on long-established practice rather than on statute: customary law.^[10][5][2]
3. (law, historical) Of land, especially a feudal estate: held by custom and owing services or dues.^[10][5][2]

Noun

1. A written statement or book of the customary laws and practices of a manor or district.^[10][5][2]
2. A book of the rules and usages of a monastery or cathedral; a consuetudinary.^[5][2][3]

Word family

• customarily
• customariness
• noncustomary
• uncustomary

Related words

• consuetude
• costume
• custom
• customer
• customize
• accustom
• custumal

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
9. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
10. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins