Habitacioun

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. An archaic term for a dwelling place, the home or residence where a person or creature lives
2. A Middle English word meaning an abode, a place where someone lodges or makes their permanent home
3. Refers to a house or lodging in which people reside, used in older English texts for a place of habitation

Etymology: Its Latin ancestor is "habitare", "to dwell" or "to live in", which was a frequentative of "habere", "to have or hold." The idea is of repeatedly holding oneself in a place, so to dwell somewhere is to keep returning to it. From that verb came "habitatio", a noun for a dwelling or the act of living in one. Old French reshaped the Latin into "habitacion", and English later borrowed it during the Middle English period, when its ending was spelled "-ioun." Its early English uses were in the sense of a dwelling or place of residence, and it appears in translations of religious texts, where it renders the idea of a dwelling place.

Synonyms: habitation, dwelling, residence, abode