A wont is somebody's usual habit or custom. As is his wont, according to her wont, their wont.
It survives almost entirely in the phrase as is his wont, which is deliberately formal or arch and usually mildly amused. As an adjective, wont means accustomed: he was wont to walk there. The word has nothing to do with want, which is a separate Norse word, and it is a different thing again from the contraction of will not — three unrelated items that all look alike.
1nounwontSomebody's usual habit or custom.
“As was her wont, she went for a swim before breakfast.”
2adjectiveaccustomedAccustomed to doing something.
“My grandfather was wont to tell the same stories at every family dinner.”
wont is a habitual practice.
The old word behind it is habit. Your wont is your habit, and it has nothing to do with want, which is a different word that only looks like it.
hooks ontohabit
Old English gewunod is the past participle of gewunian, to be accustomed or to dwell. Wont, won and the German wohnen, to live somewhere, come from the same dwelling.
Proto-Indo-European
*wenh₁-
Old English
ġewunod
Middle English
wont
English, today
wont
Built from
From Middle English wont, from Old English ġewunod, past participle of ġewunian (“to be accustomed to, dwell”), the noun sense possibly arising via conflation of wone (“custom, habit, practice”) and the adjective wont. Compare German Low German Gewohnte (“custom, habit”), Dutch gewoonte, Swedish van. Likely related to a doublet of wone and wonder and wean and win.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in A Song of Ice and Fire