A habit is the usual condition or state of a person or thing, either natural or acquired, regarded as something had, possessed, and firmly retained. The term habit has several applications in English:

• A personal habit is one which shows a habitual routine that is not consciously considered, known as habituation.

The beginning of a habit is like an invisible thread, but every time we repeat the act we strengthen the strand, add to it another filament, until it becomes a great cable and binds us irrevocably in thought and act. -Orison Swett Marden.

• In clothing, a habit is the customary dress appropriate to a vocation or activity; specifically:
  • In a religious context, habit refers to the distinctive garment(s) worn by members of religious orders, e.g., for Catholic orders, it is normally comprised of a tunic, often covered by a scapular and cowl. For men the hood is part of the habit, for women the veil. Modern variations may not include all of the forementioned; and the remaining parts may be considerably simplified to make them better suited for modern living. After the postulancy with a particular religious community, the newcomer, having declared the intention of wishing to undergo a formal novitiate and been accepted by the community, strips off the secular clothes worn hitherto and gets dressed by the superior in the habit of the community – a special ceremony called "the clothing".
  • In horseback riding, a riding habit refers to formal riding clothes worn for hunting or for exhibition; the forms of these are rigidly regulated by etiquette or competition rules.

• In botany, habit refers to the appearance or manner of growth of a plant. That a particular species is an annual, a tree, or a vine are descriptions of the plant's habit.

• In mineralogy, habit refers to the typical appearance of minerals. Various descriptive terms are used, such as acicular for the needle-like habit of rutile in quartz. See crystal habit.

Habituation is an example of non-associative learning in which there is a progressive diminution of behavioral response probability with repetition of a stimulus. ... (See also List of types of clothing and Clothing terminology) Humans nearly universally wear articles of clothing (also known as dress, garments, attire, or apparel) on the body. ... A religious order is an organization of people who live in some way set apart from society in accordance with religious devotion. ... Tupa Inca tunic The tunic was the common masculine garment of Roman civilization. ... The Brown Scapular of Mount Carmel promises salvation to its wearer. ... A Roman Catholic monk The cowl (from the Latin, cuculla) is a long, outer garment, with wide sleeves, worn by Catholic monks when participating in the liturgy. ... Veils are articles of clothing, worn almost exclusively by women, which cover some part of the head or face. ... horse, see Horse (disambiguation). ... Riding habits of the 1830s A riding habit is womens clothing for horseback riding. ... Etiquette is the code that governs the expectations of social behavior, the conventional norm. ... Botany is the scientific study of plant life. ... An annual is a plant that usually germinates, flowers and dies in one year. ... The coniferous Coast Redwood, the tallest tree species on earth A tree can be defined as a large, perennial, woody plant. ... The term vine was originally a term for the plant on which grapes grew, from the word for wine (Greek oinos), for which grapes were grown. ... Mineralogy is an earth science that involves the chemistry, crystal structure, and physical (including optical) properties of minerals. ... Rutile in trellis texture characteristic of secondary rutile. ... Quartz is the most abundant mineral in the Earths continental crust. ... In mineralogy, shape and size give rise to descriptive terms applied to the typical appearance, or habit of crystals. ...

External links

• The psychodynamics of habits
• Creating and Destroying Habits