hábito

Forms

hábito m (plural hábitos)^[1] Old Galician-Portuguese wrote abito and avito in the 13th century and abeto as well; the spelling with h- appears in the 15th century.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin habitus (“condition, bearing; appearance; dress”), written Old Galician-Portuguese abito in the oldest texts.^[2][3][1] Wiktionary treats the Old Galician-Portuguese word as the borrowing from Latin.^[1] The Latin noun is formed from habeō (“to have, hold”) with the suffix -tus.^[1][2]

The same Latin word is Galician hábito, Italian abito and French habit, where it means above all “clothing”.^[5][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first records are for a monk's or friar's habit: in the Cantigas de Santa Maria a man goes to the friars and asks for their habit (e foi-ss' hu eran os frades e seu abito pediu), and the Galician chronicle has en auito de çistel “in the habit of Cîteaux”.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The Miragres de Santiago speak of taking o abeto negro “the black habit”.^[4] Cardoso (1569) has Abito already in the sense “custom”, translated with Latin mos and consuetudo.^[6] Barbosa (1611) keeps two entries, one for dress and the insignia of the military orders (Habito dos Commendadores de Christo), one for custom.^[7] Morais (1789) lists dress, the insignia of an order of knighthood, the outward look of a plant or animal, and a propensity acquired by repeated acts.^[8]

Today the main sense is habit as a regular way of acting, with the religious habit and the external appearance of an organism as further senses.^[2][9] The word passed into the Língua Geral of Amazonia as abitu.^[1]

Timeline

• 13th century – abito “religious habit” in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[4][2]
• 1450 – abito in the Livro das tres vertudes.^[10]
• 15th century – the spelling habito.^[2]
• 1569 – Cardoso's dictionary lists Abito in the sense “custom”.^[6]
• 1611 – Barbosa lists Habito for dress and for custom.^[7]
• 1789 – Morais heads the word habito.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. A habit: a settled disposition acquired by repeating an act; a usual way of being or doing: Ganhou o hábito de ler à noite.^[2][9][1]
2. A custom or practice of a group.^[2][11]
3. The robe of a monk, friar or nun; by extension the religious state, as in tomar hábito and largar o hábito.^[9][1]
4. The insignia of a military or honorific order.^[12]
5. Outward appearance, build;^[13][14] (biology, botany) the general form of an organism or a plant;^[13][14] (mineralogy) the typical crystal form of a mineral.^[13][14]

Related words

• habituação
• habituado
• habitual
• habituar
• haver
• Latin habitus

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. hábito
3. ^ a b Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. hábito
4. ^ a b c d Instituto da Lingua Galega, Dicionario de dicionarios do galego medieval (DDGM), ed. Ernesto González Seoane, Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/ddgm, p. s.v. abito
5. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 3964
6. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. abito
7. ^ a b Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. habito
8. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1789), Diccionario da lingua portugueza composto pelo padre D. Rafael Bluteau, reformado, e accrescentado, 2 vols., Lisboa: Simão Thaddeo Ferreira, p. 1, 678
9. ^ a b c Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. hábito
10. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. abito
11. ^ Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 4837
12. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. hábito
13. ^ a b c Michaelis: Moderno Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, São Paulo: Melhoramentos (online as Michaelis Dicionário Brasileiro da Língua Portuguesa, https://michaelis.uol.com.br), p. s.v. hábito
14. ^ a b c Wikcionário (Portuguese Wiktionary), pt.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. hábito