Origin uncertain; apparently a conflation of wone(“custom, habit, practice”) and wont (participle adjective, below). Compare German Low GermanGewohnte(“custom, habit”) and Dutchgewoonte. Likely related to wone, wonder, wean, andwin, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European*wenh₁-(“to wish for, strive for, pursue; to succeed, win”); more there.
(Can this(+) etymology be sourced?)
This etymology is incomplete. You can help Wiktionary by elaborating on the origins of this term.
Noun
wont (usually uncountable, pluralwonts)
(archaic) One's habitual way of doing things; custom, habit, practice.
2001, Orhan Pamuk; Erdağ M. Göknar, transl., “I am Called Black”, in My Name Is Red, London: Faber and Faber, →ISBN; paperback edition, London: Faber and Faber, 2002, →ISBN, page 62:
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!
Synonyms
wone
Translations
See also
meo more
Etymology 2
From Middle Englishwont, iwoned, from Old Englishġewunod, past participle of ġewunian.
Adjective
wont (not comparable)
Accustomed or used (to or with a thing), accustomed or apt (to do something).
1751, [Thomas Gray], An Elegy Wrote in a Country Church-yard, London: Printed for R[obert] Dodsley in Pall-Mall; and sold by M[ary] Cooper in Pater-noster-Row, →OCLC; republished as “An Elegy Written in a Country Church Yard”, in A Collection of Poems in Six Volumes. By Several Hands, volume IV, 2nd edition, London: Printed by J. Hughs, for R[obert] and J[ames] Dodsley, at Tully's-Head in Pall-Mall, 1758, →OCLC, page 5:
On ſome fond breaſt the parting ſoul relies, / Some pious drops the cloſing eye requires; / Ev'n from the tomb the voice of Nature cries, / Ev'n in our Aſhes live their wonted Fires.
Derived terms
unwont
use and wont
wontly
Translations
See also
prone to
used to
Etymology 3
From Middle Englishwonten(“to accustom”), from wont(adjective). See above.
Verb
wont (third-person singular simple presentwonts, present participlewonting, simple past and past participlewonted)
(transitive, archaic) To make (someone) used to; to accustom.
(intransitive, archaic) To be accustomed (to something), to be in the habit (of doing something).
c.1580, Edmund Spenser, “The Teares of the Mvses[: Thalia]”, in Complaints: Containing Sundrie Small Poemes of the Worlds Vanitie. VVhereof the Next Page Maketh Mention, London: Imprinted for VVilliam Ponsonbie, dwelling in Paules Churchyard at the signe of the Bishops head, published 1591, →OCLC; republished in “The Teares of the Mvses[: Thalia]”, in The Faerie Qveen: The Shepheards Calendar: Together with the Other Works of England's Arch-Pöet, Edm. Spenser: Collected into One Volume, and Carefully Corrected, London: Printed by H[umphrey] L[ownes] for Mathew Lownes, 1617, →OCLC:
What be the ſweet delights of learning a treaſure, / That wont with Comick ſock to beautify / The painted Theaters, and fill with pleaſure / The liſtners eyes, and eares with melodie; […]
Translations
References
Anagrams
Town, nowt, town
Middle English
Alternative forms
wonte, wontt, woont
Etymology
From Old Englishwand, wond, from Proto-Germanic*wanduz.
Pronunciation
IPA(key): /wɔnt/, /wɔːnt/
Noun
wont (pluralwontes)
mole (Talpa europea)
Synonyms:moldewarpe, molle
Descendants
English: want(dialectal)
Scots: want
References
“wont(e, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.