habituate

Etymology

It is borrowed from Late Latin habituātus (“conditioned, constituted”),^[2][3][4][5] the past participle of habituō (“to bring into a condition or habit”),^[4][6][7] from Latin habitus (“condition, appearance, dress”),^[3][4][5] the source of habit.^[8][7] That noun comes from the past participle of habeō (“to have, hold”),^[4][5] from Proto-Indo-European *ghabh- (“to give or receive”).^[4][5] Compare French habituer,^[6][7] which Johnson gave as the source.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

As an adjective, made habitual: 1526, in W. Bonde's Pylgrimage of Perfection.^[6] As a verb, to accustom a person: 1530, in Palsgrave,^[6] the 1520s in Etymonline,^[4] and 1520–30 in Dictionary.com.^[2] Other dictionaries go earlier: the Shorter Oxford and the Oxford Dictionary of English say the late 15th century,^[8][10] Merriam-Webster Unabridged the 15th century,^[3] and the American Heritage Dictionary takes the word back to Middle English in the sense "accustomed".^[5]

Semantic evolution

The participle came first as an adjective, for a habit formed by repetition and for a person grown used to something; it lasted into the 17th and early 18th centuries.^[6] The verb's central sense, to accustom, has not changed.^[6][8] Johnson (1755) gave "to accustom" with Tillotson's habituate themselves to their vicious practices,^[9] and Webster (1828) still listed "to settle as an inhabitant",^[11] a 17th-century use modelled on the French verb.^[6] The American sense "to frequent" is recorded from 1872;^[6] Collins now calls it archaic in the United States and Canada.^[12] Merriam-Webster Unabridged adds uses that go with habituation: of a drug, to cause habituation, and of a subject, to undergo it, as when one habituates to a stimulus.^[3]

Timeline

• 1526 – adjective, made habitual (obsolete by 1720).^[6]
• 1530 – verb, to fix a person in a habit; to accustom.^[6]
• 1603 – to settle as an inhabitant (obsolete by 1695).^[6]
• 1606 – adjective, of a person, grown accustomed (obsolete by 1679).^[6]
• 1614 – to make something habitual (obsolete by 1649).^[6]
• 1872 – to frequent, in the United States.^[6]

Meanings

Verb

1. To make someone accustomed or familiar with something through repeated experience: The keepers habituated the young gorillas to their visitors.^[12][3][6]
2. To make something acceptable or desirable through repeated use; to addict.^[3]
3. To undergo habituation, as to a stimulus; of a substance, to cause it.^[3]
4. (archaic) To visit often; to frequent.^[12][3][8]
5. (obsolete, 1614–49) To make an action habitual.^[6][3][8]
6. (obsolete, 1603–95) To settle as an inhabitant in a place.^[6][8][11]

Adjective

1. (obsolete, 1526–1720) Formed by habit; habitual.^[6][3]

Word family

• dishabituate
• unhabituated

Related words

• habit
• habitual
• habituation
• habitué
• exhibit
• inhibit

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ a b c d e f Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ 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.
10. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b Webster, Noah (1828), An American Dictionary of the English Language, New York: S. Converse
12. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins