habitual

Etymology

It is borrowed from Medieval Latin habituālis (“relating to dress, condition or habit”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} from Latin habitus (“condition, appearance, dress”),^[3][4][7] the source of habit, originally the past participle of habeō (“to have, hold, possess”),^[3] from Proto-Indo-European *ghabh- (“to give or receive”).^[3] The Medieval Latin adjective is also the source of French habituel.^[6] Johnson derived the English word from the French one.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Belonging to one's inner disposition, as a term of theology: about 1454, in Pecock, who wrote of "habitual love" and "habitual temperance".^[9] Etymonline dates the word to the mid 15th century,^[3] the Oxford Dictionary of English and the Shorter Oxford to late Middle English,^[7][10] while the OED's first record of this sense is from 1526.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The word began in philosophy and theology, where a "habit" was an inward disposition of the mind; this sense lasted until the mid 19th century.^[2][10][9] The everyday sense, "fixed by habit, constantly repeated, customary", is recorded from 1611 in the OED;^[2] Merriam-Webster Unabridged dates it to 1603.^[4] The sense "usual, accustomed" followed in 1689.^[2] Johnson (1755) defined it as "customary; accustomed; inveterate; established by frequent repetition".^[8] From 1825 it described a person who does something by habit, as a habitual drunkard,^[2] and in law habitual offender means a recidivist.^[11] A colloquial noun for such a person is recorded from 1884,^[2][4] and in American criminal slang the habitual was a charge of being a habitual criminal (1972).^[12]

Timeline

• c. 1454 – belonging to one's inner disposition (obsolete by the mid 19th century).^[9][2]
• 1611 – fixed by habit; constantly repeated; customary.^[2] Merriam-Webster Unabridged dates this sense to 1603.^[4]
• 1650 – noun, an inherent affection of the soul (obsolete, rare).^[2]
• 1689 – commonly used; usual, accustomed.^[2]
• 1825 – of a person, doing something constantly or by habit.^[2]
• 1884 – noun, a habitual criminal, drunkard or the like.^[2][4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Done or experienced regularly and repeatedly; fixed by habit: her habitual evening swim.^[13][4][14]
2. Doing something by force of habit: a habitual liar; in law, of an offender, repeatedly convicted.^[13][4][11]
3. Customary; usual: He took his habitual seat at the back of the room.^[13][14][4]
4. (obsolete, 1526–1856) Belonging to one's inner disposition; inherent in the mind.^[2][10]

Noun

1. (colloquial) A person who does something habitually, especially a habitual criminal, drunkard or drug user.^[4][2]

Word family

• habitually
• habitualness
• nonhabitual
• unhabitual

Related words

• habit
• habit-forming
• habituate
• habituation
• habitude
• habitus

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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
9. ^ a b c Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
10. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b Garner, Bryan A., ed. (2004), Black's Law Dictionary, 8th ed., St. Paul, Minn.: Thomson West
12. ^ Dalzell, Tom; Victor, Terry, eds. (2013), The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, 2nd ed., London: Routledge
13. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
14. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin