wont
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /wəʊnt/
ipa: /wɒnt/
enpr: wŏnt
enpr: wônt
enpr: wōnt
enpr: wŭnt
ipa: /wɑnt/
ipa: /wɔnt/
ipa: /woʊnt/
ipa: /wʌnt/
ipa: /wʊnt/
rhymes: -əʊnt
rhymes: -ɒnt
rhymes: -ɔːnt
rhymes: -ʌnt
homophone: want (one pronunciation)
homophone: won't (one pronunciation)
Forms: form: wonts
Etymology: From Old English gewunod, past participle of ġewunian (“to be accustomed to, dwell”), possibly as a conflation of wone (“custom, habit, practice”) and wont (participle adjective, below).
Compare German Low German Gewohnte (“custom, habit”), Dutch gewoonte, Swedish van. Likely related to wone, wonder, wean, and win.
Senses: examples: text: He awoke at the crack of dawn, as was his wont.
text: [T]hey [Spartan youth] are by a ſudden alarum or watch-word, to be called out to their military motions, under ſky or covert, according to the ſeaſon, as was the Roman wont; […]
ref: 1644, John Milton, Of Education, To Master Samuel Hartlib, [London: Printed for Thomas Underhill and/or Thomas Johnson], →OCLC; republished in The Works of John Milton, Historical, Political, and Miscellaneous. Now More Correctly Printed from the Originals, than in any Former Edition, and Many Passages Restored, which have been hitherto Omitted. To which is Prefixed, an Account of His Life and Writings [by Thomas Birch]. In Two Volumes, volume I, London: Printed for A[ndrew] Millar, in the Strand, 1753, →OCLC, page 147:
text: […]when Sindbad the Seaman had related the history of what befel him in his sixth voyage, and all the company had dispersed, Sindbad the Landsman went home and slept as of wont.
ref: 1885, Richard F. Burton, The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Night 563:
text: Such conditions, having been the common practice for years, and, existing in a less degree in some localities to the present time, afford a tangible reason for a form of correlation that is more universal than it is the wont of the profession to admit; namely, that with the laity, dentistry and "the pulling of teeth," and the dentist and "the tooth puller," are very closely related subjects […]
ref: 1915, The Practical Dental Journal, volume 15, San Antonio, Tx.: Ferguson Dental Supply Co., →OCLC, page 100:
text: As was also the wont of international conferences, a delegate from Pennsylvania, in this instance James Wilson, proposed the appointment of a secretary and nominated William Temple Franklin, whose selection would have been agreeable to the authorities of Pennsylvania, inasmuch as he was the grandson of its venerable chief executive.
ref: 1920, James Brown Scott, “The Federal Convention: An International Conference”, in The United States of America: A Study in International Organization (Publications of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Division of International Law), New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, →OCLC, page 149:
text: With a simple-minded desire, and to rid my mind of this irrepressible urge, I retired to a corner of the room, as was my wont, but after a while I realized I couldn't jack off—proof well enough that I'd fallen in love again after twelve years!
ref: 2001, Orhan Pamuk; Erdağ M. Göknar, transl., “I am Called Black”, in My Name Is Red, London: Faber and Faber; paperback edition, London: Faber and Faber, 2002, page 62
synonyms: wone
habit
routine
ritual
glosses: One's habitual way of doing things; custom, habit, practice.
Related terms: meo more