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Wont vs Customary - What's the difference?

wont | customary |

As nouns the difference between wont and customary

is that wont is one’s habitual way of doing things, practice, custom while customary is a book containing laws and usages, or customs; a custumal.

As adjectives the difference between wont and customary

is that wont is (archaic) accustomed or used (to'' or ''with a thing) while customary is agreeing with, or established by, custom; established by common usage; conventional; habitual.

As a verb wont

is (archaic) to make (someone) used to; to accustom.

wont

English

Etymology 1

Origin uncertain: apparently a conflation of (wone) and wont (participle adjective, below).

Noun

(en-noun)
  • One’s habitual way of doing things, practice, custom.
  • He awoke at the crack of dawn, as was his wont .
  • * Milton
  • They are to be called out to their military motions, under sky or covert, according to the season, as was the Roman wont .
  • * 2006 , Orhan Pamuk, My Name Is Red:
  • 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 [...]
  • * 1920 , James Brown Scott, The United States of America: A Study in International Organization , page 142:
  • 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
  • * 1914 , Items of interest - Page 83:
  • 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 [...]

    Etymology 2

    (etyl) .

    Adjective

    (-)
  • (archaic) Accustomed or used (to'' or ''with a thing).
  • * Shakespeare
  • I have not that alacrity of spirit, / Nor cheer of mind, that I was wont to have.
  • * 1843 , '', book 2, ch. XI, ''The Abbot’s Ways
  • He could read English Manuscripts very elegantly, elegantissime : he was wont to preach to the people in the English tongue, though according to the dialect of Norfolk, where he had been brought up
  • (designating habitual behaviour) Accustomed, apt (to doing something).
  • He is wont to complain loudly about his job.
    Like a 60-yard Percy Harvin touchdown run or a Joe Haden interception return, Urban Meyer’s jaw-dropping resignation Saturday was, as he’s wont to say, “a game-changer.” — Sunday December 27, 2009, Stewart Mandel, INSIDE COLLEGE FOOTBALL'', ''Meyer’s shocking resignation rocks college coaching landscape
    See also
    * * prone to

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • (archaic) To make (someone) used to; to accustom.
  • (archaic) To be accustomed.
  • * 1590 , (Edmund Spenser), The Faerie Queene , III.2:
  • But by record of antique times I finde / That wemen wont in warres to beare most sway [...].

    Anagrams

    * *

    customary

    English

    Noun

    (customaries)
  • A book containing laws and usages, or customs; a custumal.
  • Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Agreeing with, or established by, custom; established by common usage; conventional; habitual.
  • *
  • *:At half-past nine on this Saturday evening, the parlour of the Salutation Inn, High Holborn, contained most of its customary visitors.In former days every tavern of repute kept such a room for its own select circle, a club, or society, of habitués, who met every evening, for a pipe and a cheerful glass.
  • Holding or held by custom; as, customary tenants; customary service or estate.
  • *1777 , Joseph Nicolson and Richard Burn, The history and antiquities of the counties of Westmorland and Cumberland
  • *:The tenants are chiefly customary and heriotable.
  • Quotations

    * 1956 — , The City and the Stars , p 39 *: When two people met for the first time in Diaspar—or even for the hundredth—it was customary to spend an hour or so in an exchange or courtesies before getting down to business, if any.

    Synonyms

    *

    Derived terms

    * customarily