different between dwell vs habitation

English

Etymology

From Middle English dwellen (“delay, hinder, detain; linger, remain”), from Old English dwellan (“to mislead, deceive; be led into error, stray”), from Proto-Germanic *dwaljan? (“to hold up, delay; hesitate”), from Proto-Indo-European *d?welH- (“to whirl, swirl, blur, obfuscate”), which is cognate with Old Norse dvelja and related to Proto-Germanic *dwelan? (“to go astray”), which underwent semantic change in its descendants. Cognates include Danish dvæle (“to linger, dwell”) and Swedish dväljas (“to dwell, reside”).

Pronunciation

• enPR: dw?l, IPA^(key): /dw?l/

• Rhymes: -?l

Noun

dwell (plural dwells)

1. (engineering) A period of time in which a system or component remains in a given state.
2. (engineering) A brief pause in the motion of part of a mechanism to allow an operation to be completed.
3. (electrical engineering) A planned delay in a timed control program.
4. (automotive) In a petrol engine, the period of time the ignition points are closed to let current flow through the ignition coil in between each spark. This is measured as an angle in degrees around the camshaft in the distributor which controls the points, for example in a 4-cylinder engine it might be 55° (spark at 90° intervals, points closed for 55° between each).

Verb

dwell (third-person singular simple present dwells, present participle dwelling, simple past and past participle dwelt or (mostly US) dwelled)

1. (intransitive, now literary) To live; to reside.
   • 1622, Henry Peacham (Jr.), The Compleat Gentleman

     I am fully resolved to go dwell in another house.

   • 1871, Charles John Smith, Synonyms Discriminated: A Complete Catalogue of Synonymous Words in the English Language

     The poor man dwells in a humble cottage near the hall where the lord of the domain resides.

2. (intransitive) To linger (on) a particular thought, idea etc.; to remain fixated (on).
3. (intransitive, engineering) To be in a given state.
4. (intransitive) To abide; to remain; to continue.
   • 1802, William Wordsworth, Milton!-

     Thy soul was like a star and dwelt apart.

Synonyms

• (live, reside): See also Thesaurus:reside

Derived terms

• bedwell
• indwell

Related terms

• dwelling
• dwell on, dwell upon

Translations

See also

• abide
• live
• reside
• stay

References

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

Maltese

Etymology

From Italian duello, from Latin duellum.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /dw?ll/

Noun

dwell m (plural dwellijiet or dwelli)

1. duel

Derived terms

• ddwella

English

Etymology

From Middle English habitacioun, from Old French habitacion, abitacion (“act of dwelling”), from Latin habit?ti?nem, accusative of Latin habit?ti?.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?hæb.??te?.??n/
• Rhymes: -e???n

Noun

habitation (countable and uncountable, plural habitations)

1. (uncountable) The act of inhabiting; state of inhabiting or dwelling, or of being inhabited; occupancy.
   • 1651, Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan, Part 1, Chapter 24,^[1]

     And there have been Common-wealths that having no more Territory, than hath served them for habitation, have neverthelesse, not onely maintained, but also encreased their Power, partly by the labour of trading from one place to another, and partly by selling the Manifactures, whereof the Materials were brought in from other places.

   • 1674, John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book 7,^[2]

     Witness this new-made world, another Heaven

     From Heaven-gate not far, founded in view

     On the clear hyaline, the glassy sea;

     Of amplitude almost immense, with stars

     Numerous, and every star perhaps a world

     Of destined habitation […]

   • 1817, Walter Scott, Rob Roy, Volume 2, Chapter 10,^[3]

     The few miserable hovels that showed some marks of human habitation, were now of still rarer occurrence; and at length, as we began to ascend an uninterrupted swell of moorland, they totally disappeared.

   • 1907, G. K. Chesterton, The Man Who Was Thursday, Chapter 12,^[4]

     Now, however, the windows in the houses began one by one to be lit up, giving a greater sense of habitation and humanity.

2. (countable) A place of abode; settled dwelling; residence; house.
   • c. 1596, William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act V, Scene 1,^[5]

     And as imagination bodies forth

     The forms of things unknown, the poet’s pen

     Turns them to shapes and gives to airy nothing

     A local habitation and a name.

   • 1611, King James Version of the Bible, Exodus 35:3,^[6]

     Ye shall kindle no fire throughout your habitations upon the sabbath day.

   • 1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, Book I, Chapter 6,^[7]

     Mrs Deborah, having disposed of the child according to the will of her master, now prepared to visit those habitations which were supposed to conceal its mother.

   • 1814, William Wordsworth, The Excursion, London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme & Brown, Book 5, The Pastor, p. 219^[8]

     How gay the Habitations that adorn

     This fertile Valley! Not a House but seems

     To give assurance of content within;

   • 1948, Alan Paton, Cry, the Beloved Country, New York: Scribner, 1987, Chapter 10,

     And this is Shanty Town, my friend. ¶ Even here the children laugh in the narrow lanes that run between these tragic habitations.

3. A group, lodge, or company, as of the Primrose League.
4. (Louisiana French) A farm.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:abode

Translations

French

Pronunciation

• ^{(mute h)} IPA^(key): /a.bi.ta.sj??/
• Rhymes: -??
• Homophone: habitations

Noun

habitation f (plural habitations)

1. dwelling (a place or house in which a person lives)
2. inhabitation (act of inhabiting)
3. (Louisiana) farm, plantation, ranch

Further reading

• “habitation” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).