habitation

English

Etymology

From Middle English habitacioun, from Old French habitacion, abitacion (“act of dwelling”), from Latin habitātiōnem, accusative of Latin habitātiō.

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /ˌhæb.ɪˈteɪ.ʃən/

  • Audio (Southern England)

    (file)

• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /ˌhæb.ɪˈtæɪ.ʃən/
• Rhymes: -eɪʃən

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, chapter 24, in Leviathan, or The Matter, Forme, & Power of a Common-wealth Ecclesiasticall and Civill, London: for Andrew Crooke, , →OCLC:

     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.

   • 1667, John Milton, “Book VII”, in Paradise Lost. , London: [Samuel Simmons], , →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: , London: Basil Montagu Pickering , 1873, →OCLC:

     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 December 31 (indicated as 1818), [Walter Scott], “”, in Rob Roy. , volume II, Edinburgh: James Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Co. ; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, →OCLC, pages 314–315:

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

   • 1907, G. K. Chesterton, chapter 12, in The Man Who Was Thursday‎:

     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. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “A Midsommer Nights Dreame”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

     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, The Holy Bible,  (King James Version), London: Robert Barker, , →OCLC, Exodus 35:3:

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

   • 1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume I, London: A Millar, , →OCLC, book 6:

     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.

   • c. 1806–1809 (date written), William Wordsworth, “Book the Fifth. The Pastor.”, in The Excursion, being a Portion of The Recluse, a Poem, London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, , published 1814, →OCLC, page 219:

     How gay the Habitations that adorn
     This fertile Valley! Not a House but seems
     To give assurance of content within;

   • 1948, Alan Paton, chapter 10, in Cry, the Beloved Country, New York: Scribner, published 1987:

     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.sjɔ̃/

• Audio (France, Paris)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɔ̃
• 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 , 2012.