September 14, 2010, 19:48
shufitzHabitué ?
Why do we call a nun's costume (or should I say "uniform"?) a
habit? Because it's habitual? It couldn't possibly be because she "inhabits" it, could it?
(I know, I could just look it up, but what would be the shared fun in that?

)
September 15, 2010, 01:46
arnieWell, it's something she wears every day and she can't (without breaking her vows) get out of it.
(I've not looked it up, either.)
September 15, 2010, 05:15
zmježdFrom the OED:
quote:
The sense development, as seen in Latin and the modern languages taken together, is thus: orig. Holding, having, ‘havour’; hence the way in which one holds or has oneself, i.e. the mode or condition in which one is, exists, or exhibits oneself, a) externally; hence demeanour, outward appearance, fashion of body, mode of clothing oneself, dress, habitation; b) in mind, character, or life; hence, mental constitution, character, disposition, way of acting, comporting oneself, or dealing with things, habitual or customary way (of acting, etc.), personal custom, accustomedness. This development was largely completed in ancient Latin, and had received some extension in OF., before the word became English; in our language, senses were taken, from time to time, from Fr. or L., without reference to their original order of development; hence the chronological order in Eng. is in no way parallel to the original; and the arrangement below is only partly chronological. In mod.F. the word is narrowed down to our branch I, other senses being supplied by habitude; thus Eng. ‘habit’ is co-extensive with the two French words, and its chief sense corresponds not to F. habit but to F. habitude.
Etymologically,
habit is what is had by you or others.
September 15, 2010, 05:27
<Proofreader>Or perhaps, because it's something she wears every day, she just got in the habit.
September 15, 2010, 07:01
arnieSpoilsport, zmj, for looking it up!
Still without any research, I'd guess that
habit is descended from the Latin
habeo, "I hold, or own". Since so few people at the time had much other than the clothes they stood up in, the meaning transferred to "clothes". Later, as the peasantry got more affluent, it fell out of use, apart from by monks and nuns, who had renounced all worldly goods, and so had nothing bar their clothes that they could call their own.
The (rather impenetrable) definition from the OED explains how the other main meaning came about, I'm sure.

September 15, 2010, 07:45
zmježd Spoilsport, zmj, for looking it up!A wise man once said that there are two kinds of knowledge: we either know something of itself, or we know where to look it up. One does not have to agree with what others have said about something, but I usually take that as a jumping off spot in the investigation of that same something. That's just how I work, and I'm sorry if that makes me a spoilsport.

September 15, 2010, 17:44
GeoffHow, then, is
custom related? It seems also to fit some of the terms formerly attributed to
habit.