different between inveterate vs habituate

English

Etymology

From Latin inveteratus (“of long standing, chronic”), form of inveterare, from in- (“in, into”) + veterare (“to age”), from vetus, form of veteris (“old”); latter ancestor to veteran.

Cognate to Italian inveterato.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?n?v?t???t/
• Rhymes: -?t???t
• Hyphenation: in?vet?er?ate

Adjective

inveterate (comparative more inveterate, superlative most inveterate)

1. firmly established from having been around for a long time; of long standing
   • 1843, Thomas Carlyle, Past and Present, book 1, ch. 3, "Manchester Insurrection":

     a Heaven's radiance of justice, prophetic, clearly of Heaven, discernible behind all these confused worldwide entanglements, of Landlord interests, Manufacturing interests, Tory-Whig interests, and who knows what other interests, expediencies, vested interests, established possessions, inveterate Dilettantisms, Midas-eared Mammonism.

   • 1911, Morrison I. Swift, "Humanizing the Prisons," The Atlantic:

     In Montpelier, where this prison stands, the inveterate prejudice against prisoners has been swept away.

2. (of a person) Having had a habit for a long time
   • 1868, Louisa May Alcott, Little Women, ch. 45:

     [S]he offered kisses to a stranger so confidingly that the most inveterate bachelor relented.
3. Malignant; virulent; spiteful.
   • 1748, David Hume, Enquiries concerning the human understanding and concerning the principles of morals, London: Oxford University Press, 1973. § 15:

     A man of mild manners can form no idea of inveterate revenge or cruelty […]

   • 1765–70, Henry Brooke, The Fool of Quality; or, The History of Henry, Earl of Moreland

     This his lordship perused with a countenance, and scrutiny, apparently inveterate.

Synonyms

• deep-rooted, ingrained, ineradicable, radicated, hardened, chronic

Antonyms

• casual
• transient

Related terms

• inveteracy
• inveterately

Translations

Verb

inveterate (third-person singular simple present inveterates, present participle inveterating, simple past and past participle inveterated)

1. (obsolete) To fix and settle after a long time; to entrench.
   • 1622, Francis Bacon, The History of the Raigne of King Henry the Seventh:

     "the vulgar conceived that now there was an end given, and a consummation to superstitious prophecies, the belief of fools, but the talk sometimes of wise men, and to an ancient tacit expectation which had by tradition been infused and inveterated into men's minds."

   • 1640, Edward Dacres, translation of The Prince by Niccolò Machiavelli, Chapter XIX [1]:

     "none of these Princes do use to maintaine any armies together, which are annex'd and inveterated with the governments of the provinces, as were the armies of the Roman Empire. "

   • 1851 January, author unknown, "The Philosophy of the American Union, in The United States Magazine and Democratic Review, page 16:

     "The foregoing elements of disunion are inveterated by the constituent formation of our national legislature. In the French chambers the members are all Frenchmen ; but our members of Congress are effectively Georgians, New-Yorkers, Carolinians, Pennsylvanians, &c."

Derived terms

• inveteration

References

• Douglas Harper (2001–2021) , “inveterate”, in Online Etymology Dictionary
• inveterate in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

Anagrams

• Everettian, entreative

Italian

Adjective

inveterate

1. feminine plural of inveterato

Anagrams

• eternatevi
• ritenevate

Latin

Participle

inveter?te

1. vocative masculine singular of inveter?tus

English

Etymology

From Middle English habituate (“physically established or present”, adjective), from Latin habitu?tus, past participle of habitu?re (“to bring into a condition or habit of body”).

Verb

habituate (third-person singular simple present habituates, present participle habituating, simple past and past participle habituated)

1. To make accustomed; to accustom; to familiarize.
   • 1644, Kenelm Digby, Two Treatises, Paris, “The First Treatise declaring the nature and operations of bodies,” Chapter 36, p. 311,^[1]

     […] it was the custome of our English doggs (who were habituated vnto a colder clyme) to runne into the sea in the heate of summer […]

   • 1694, John Tillotson, Sermon 2, in The Works of the Most Reverend Dr. John Tillotson, London: B. Aylmer, 1696, p. 35,^[2]

     Men are usually first corrupted by bad counsel and company […] ; next they habituate themselves to their vicious practices […]

   • 1799, Hannah More, Strictures of the Modern System of Female Education, London: T. Cadell Jun. and W. Davies, Volume 1, “On the Prevailing System of Education, Manners, and Habits of Women of Rank and Fortune,” p. 185,^[3]

     It seems so very important to ground young persons in the belief that they will not inevitably meet in this world with reward and success according to their merit, but to habituate them to expect even the most virtuous attempts to be often, though not always disappointed, that I am in danger of tautology on this point.

   • 1847, Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre, Chapter 7,^[4]

     My first quarter at Lowood seemed an age; and not the golden age either; it comprised an irksome struggle with difficulties in habituating myself to new rules and unwonted tasks.

   • 1998, Nadine Gordimer, The House Gun, New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, p. 50,^[5]

     […] quarrels in discotheques were settled by the final curse-word of guns. State violence under the old, past regime had habituated its victims to it. People had forgotten there was any other way.

2. (obsolete) To settle as an inhabitant.
   • 1690, William Temple, “Of Poetry” in Miscellanea. The Second Part in Four Essays, London: Ri. and Ra. Simpson, p. 312,^[6]

     After the Conquests made by Caesar upon Gaul, and the nearer Parts of Germany […] great Numbers of Germans and Gauls resorted to the Roman Armies and to the City it self, and habituated themselves there, as many Spaniards, Syrians, Graecians had done before upon the Conquest of those Countries.

Synonyms

• accustom
• inure

Related terms

• habit
• habitual
• habituation

Translations