assuetude

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See also: assuétude

English

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Etymology

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From Latin assuetudo, from assuetus (accustomed).

Pronunciation

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Noun

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assuetude (countable and uncountable, plural assuetudes)

  1. (archaic) Accustomedness; habit.
    • 1627 (indicated as 1626), Francis [Bacon], “(please specify the page, or |century=I to X)”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. [], London: [] William Rawley []; [p]rinted by J[ohn] H[aviland] for William Lee [], →OCLC:
      Assuetude of things hurtful doth make them lose their force to hurt.
  2. The condition of an organism that has acquired tolerance of a drug or poison.
    • 1836, Frederick Marryat, The Pirate, Chapter VII:
      The boy had been his companion for years: and from assuetude had become, as it were, a part of himself.
    • 1896, Matthew Phipps Shiel, Vaila:
      My flesh writhed like the glutinous flesh of a serpent. Slowly moved, and stopped: -- then was a sweep -- and a swirl -- and a pause! then a swirl -- and a sweep -- and a pause! -- then steady industry of labour on the monstrous brazen axis, as the husbandman plods by the plough; then increase of zest, assuetude of a fledgeling to the wing -- then intensity -- then the last light ecstasy of flight.

Derived terms

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References

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