different between accustom vs modify

English

Etymology

From Old French acoustumer, acustumer (Modern French accoutumer) corresponding to a (“to, toward”) + custom. More at custom, costume.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?.?k?s.t?m/

Verb

accustom (third-person singular simple present accustoms, present participle accustoming, simple past and past participle accustomed)

1. (transitive, often passive or reflexive) To make familiar by use; to cause to accept; to habituate, familiarize, or inure. [+ to (object)]
   • ca. 1753, John Hawkesworth et al., Adventurer

     I shall always fear that he who accustoms himself to fraud in little things, wants only opportunity to practice it in greater.

   • “[…] it is not fair of you to bring against mankind double weapons?! Dangerous enough you are as woman alone, without bringing to your aid those gifts of mind suited to problems which men have been accustomed to arrogate to themselves.”
2. (intransitive, obsolete) To be wont.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Carew to this entry?)

3. (intransitive, obsolete) To cohabit.

Synonyms

• habituate, get used to, inure, exercise, train

Related terms

• custom, customary

Translations

Noun

accustom (plural accustoms)

1. (obsolete) Custom.

References

• accustom in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

English

Etymology

From Middle English modifien, from Middle French modifier, from Latin modificare (“to limit, control, regulate, deponent”), from modificari (“to measure off, set bound to, moderate”), from modus (“measure”) + facere (“to make”); see mode.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?m?d?fa?/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?m?d?fa?/
• Hyphenation: mod?i?fy

Verb

modify (third-person singular simple present modifies, present participle modifying, simple past and past participle modified)

1. (transitive) To change part of.
2. (intransitive) To be or become modified.
3. (transitive) To set bounds to; to moderate.
4. (grammar, transitive) To qualify the meaning of.
   • 1977, Linda R. Waugh, A Semantic Analysis of Word Order: Position of the Adjective in French

     There is inherently no ordering to the modification and no hierarchy of modification: that is, both adjectives modify the substantive and both apply equally to the substantive...

   • 2016, Allen Ascher, The New Harbrace Guide: Genres for Composing

     Adjectives modify nouns.

Conjugation

Synonyms

• adapt, alter, amend, revamp, rework

Related terms

• modification

Derived terms

• modifier

Translations

References

• modify in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• modify in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

Anagrams

• domify