Custom
Cus´tom Pronunciation: kŭs´tŭm
| n. | 1. | |
| 1. | Frequent repetition of the same act; way of acting common to many; ordinary manner; habitual practice; usage; method of doing or living. |
| 2. | Habitual buying of goods; practice of frequenting, as a shop, manufactory, etc., for making purchases or giving orders; business support. |
| 3. | (Law) Long-established practice, considered as unwritten law, and resting for authority on long consent; usage. See Usage, and Prescription. |
| 4. | Familiar aquaintance; familiarity. |
| v. t. | 1. | |
| 1. | To make familiar; to accustom. |
| 2. | To supply with customers. |
| v. i. | 1. | To have a custom. |
| n. | 1. | The customary toll, tax, or tribute. |
| 2. | Duties or tolls imposed by law on commodities, imported or exported. |
| v. t. | 1. | To pay the customs of. |
CUSTOM. A usage which had acquired the force of law. It is, in fact, a lex
loci, which regulates all local or real property within its limits. A
repugnancy which destroys it, must be such as to show it never did exist. 5
T. R. 414. In Pennsylvania no customs have the force of law but those which
prevail throughout the state. 6 Binn. 419, 20.
2. A custom derives its force from the tacit consent of the legislature
and the people, and supposes an original, actual deed or agreement. 2 Bl.
Com. 30, 31; 1 Chit. Pr. 283. Therefore, custom is the best interpreter of
laws: optima est legum interpres consuetudo. Dig. 1, 8, 37; 2 Inst. 18. It
follows, therefore, there; can be no custom in relation to a matter
regulated by law. 8 M. R. 309. Law cannot be established or abrogated except
by the sovereign will, but this will may be express or implied and presumed
and whether it manifests itself by word or by a series of facts, is of
little importance. When a custom is public, peaceable, uniform, general,
continued, reasonable and certain, and has lasted "time whereof the memory
of man runneth not to the contrary," it acquires the force of law. And when
any doubts arise as to the meaning of a statute, the custom which has
prevailed on the subject ought to have weight in its construction, for the
manner in which a law has always been executed is one of its modes of
interpretation. 4 Penn. St. Rep. 13.
3. Customs are general or, particular customs. 1. By general customs is
meant the common law itself, by which proceedings and determinations in
courts are guided.
2. Particular customs, are those which affect the inhabitants of some
particular districts only. 1 Bl. Com. 68, 74. Vide 1 Bouv. Inst. n. 121 Bac.
Ab. h.t.; 1 Bl. Com. 76; 2 Bl. Com. 31; 1 Lill. Reg. 516; 7 Vin. Ab. 164;
Com. Dig. h.t.; Nelson's Ab. h.t. the various Amer. Digs. h.t. Ayl. Pand.
15, 16; Ayl. Pareg. 194; Doct. Pl. 201; 3 W. C. C. R. 150; 1 Gilp. 486; Pet.
C. C. R. 220; I Edw. Ch. R. 146; 1 Gall. R. 443; 3 Watts, R. 178; 1 Rep.
Const. Ct. 303, 308; 1 Caines, R. 45; 15 Mass. R. 433; 1 Hill, R. 270;
Wright, R. 573; 1 N. & M. 176; 5 Binn. R. 287; 5 Ham. R. 436; 3 Conn. R. 9;
2 Pet. R. 148; 6 Pet. R. 715; 6 Porter R. 123; 2 N. H. Rep. 93; 1 Hall, R.
612; 1 Harr. & Gill, 239; 1 N. S. 192; 4 L. R. 160; 7 L. R. 529; Id. 215.
Mishnah,
Spiritus Mundi,
Sunna,
Talmud,
action,
actions,
activity,
acts,
address,
affectation,
air,
ancient wisdom,
archetypal myth,
archetypal pattern,
assembled,
automatism,
bad habit,
bearing,
behavior,
behavior pattern,
behavioral norm,
behavioral science,
bienseance,
bon ton,
built,
business,
canon,
carriage,
carriage trade,
cast,
characteristic,
civility,
clientage,
clientele,
common law,
comportment,
conduct,
conformity,
constructed,
consuetude,
convenance,
convention,
conventional usage,
conventionalism,
conventionality,
correctness,
crafted,
created,
creature of habit,
culture pattern,
custom-built,
custom-made,
customs,
decency,
decorousness,
decorum,
demeanor,
deportment,
doing,
doings,
dues,
duty,
especially,
etiquette,
excise,
exclusively,
expressly,
extracted,
fabricated,
fashioned,
fixture,
folk motif,
folklore,
folktale,
folkway,
force of habit,
forged,
form,
formality,
formed,
gathered,
gestures,
goings-on,
good form,
good name,
goodwill,
grown,
guise,
habit,
habit pattern,
habitude,
handcrafted,
handmade,
harvested,
haute couture,
high fashion,
homemade,
homespun,
immemorial usage,
impost,
institution,
law,
legend,
levy,
lore,
machine-made,
machined,
made,
made to order,
maintien,
man-made,
manner,
manners,
manufactured,
market,
matter of course,
method,
methodology,
methods,
mien,
milled,
mined,
mode,
modus vivendi,
mold,
molded,
motions,
movements,
moves,
myth,
mythology,
observable behavior,
particularly,
patronage,
pattern,
peculiarity,
poise,
port,
pose,
posture,
praxis,
precedent,
precept,
prefab,
prefabricated,
prescription,
presence,
prevailing taste,
procedure,
proceeding,
processed,
proper thing,
propriety,
public,
purchasing public,
put together,
racial memory,
raised,
ready-for-wear,
ready-formed,
ready-made,
ready-prepared,
ready-to-wear,
refined,
repute,
ritual,
rubric,
rural market,
second nature,
seemliness,
shaped,
smelted,
social convention,
social science,
social usage,
specially,
stereotype,
stereotyped behavior,
stream of fashion,
style,
suburban market,
support,
swim,
tactics,
tailor-made,
tariff,
tax,
to order,
toll,
tone,
trade,
tradition,
traditionalism,
traditionality,
traffic,
trend,
trick,
usage,
use,
vogue,
way,
way of life,
ways,
well-built,
well-constructed,
well-made,
wont,
youth market