haviour

English

Etymology

From Middle English havour, from Anglo-Norman aveyr, Old French aveir.

Noun

haviour (uncountable)

1. (obsolete) Demeanour, behaviour, comportment.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto VI”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     To Faery court she came, where many one
     Admyrd her goodly haueour […]

   • c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii]:

     No, nor the fruitful river in the eye,
     Nor the dejected haviour of the visage,
     Together with all forms, moods and shapes of grief,
     That can denote me truly.

   • 1611 April (first recorded performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Cymbeline”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iv], page 382, column 2:

     Put thy ſelfe
     Into a hauiour of leſſe feare, ere wildneſſe
     Vanquiſh my ſtayder Senſes.