'havior

English

Etymology

From Middle English havour, a corruption of Old French aveir, avoir (“a having”), of same origin as English aver (“a workhorse”). The h is due to confusion with have.

Noun

'havior

1. (obsolete) behaviour; demeanor
   • 1599, William Shakespeare, “Act 1, Scene 2”, in Hamlet:

     Tis not alone my inky cloak, good mother, / Nor customary suits of solemn black, / Nor windy suspiration of forced breath, / No, nor the fruitful river in the eye, / Nor the dejected 'havior of the visage, / Together with all forms, moods, shapes of grief, / That can denote me truly...;

   • 1897, Julia Ditto Young, The Story of Saville, Part 6:

     Her who had made him a pastime, bridging the winter across
     With a masque, a foolery petty and vain, amusing herself with his loss,—
     God! it had been but an insult throughout, her ’havior so sisterly free

References

• “havior”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.