behavior, behaviour

[Eng. behav(e); ior, or iour.] A. Ordinary Language: I. Outward deportment; such conduct as is visible to the eye; carriage. 1. Gen. In the foregoing sense. "And he changed his behaviour before them, and feigned himself mad in their hands. "-1 Sam . xxi. 13. "In his behaviour on a field of battle malice itself could find little to censure."-Macaulay list. Eng., ch. xiv. Shakespeare has behaviours in the plural just as we say manners. (Jul. Cæs., i 2; All's Well , i. 3.) 2. Specially : (1) Such outward deportment as is fitted favourably to impre . "The beautiful prove accomplished, but not of great spirit; and study, for the most part, rather behaviour than virtue."- Bacon . (2) Gesture, posture, attitude, specially of a graceful kind. "He marked, in Dora's dancing, good grace and handsome behaviour ."-Sidney. the gesture of constancy be cometh us best in the one, in the other the behaviour of humility." Hooker . +II. Conduct, including what is within the heart and unseen, no le than what is visible. "To him who hath a prospect of the state that attends wherhath life, depending on their beha viour here, the measures of good and evil are changed." -Locke. (a) To be on one's behaviour: To be so situated that one is likely to suffer considerably if, following the natural bent of his inclinations, he behave ill. "Tyrants themselves are upon their behaviour to a super i our power."-L'Estrange. (b) To hold an office on one's good behaviour: To hold an office while one's behaviour continues good. B. Technically : 1. Scots Law (of persons). Behaviour as heir (gestio pro hærede): Procedure as if one were the admitted heir of an estate. If on the death of a landed or other proprietor, the son, or the person entitled to claim to be his heir, forbear to do this in any formal way, but at the same time quietly a ume the privileges of heirship, as, for instance, by drawing rents from the tenantry, his "behaviour," as if he were "heir," makes him liable for the obligations of the previous po e or. Having informally a umed po e ion of his a ets, he cannot repudiate his debts. 2. Chem. (of things ): Appearance presented in certain specified circumstances. "When the behavior of a substance containing a sulphide or arsenic is to be ascertained by heating with borax."-Plattner: Use of the Blowpipe (Muspratt's ed., 1850), p. 60. Crabb thus distinguishes between the words behaviour , conduct , carriage , deportment, and demeanour : -" Behaviour respects corporeal or mental actions; conduct, mental actions; carriage, deportment, and demeanour are different species of behaviour." " Behaviour respects all actions exposed to the notice of others; conduct , the general line of a person's moral proceedings: we speak of a person's behaviour at table or in company, in a ballroom, in the street, or in public; of his conduct in the management of his private concerns, in the direction of his family, or in his different relations with his fellow creatures. Behaviour applies to the minor morals of society; conduct, to those of the first moment in our intercourse with others we may adopt a civil or polite, a rude or boisterous, behaviour ; in our serious transactions we may adopt a peaceable, discreet, or prudent, a rash, dangerous, or mischievous conduct. A behaviour is good or bad; a conduct is wise or foolish." "Carriage respects simply the manner of carrying the body; deportment includes both the action and the carriage of the body in performing the action; demeanour respects only the moral character or tendency of the action; deportment is said only of those exterior actions that have an immediate reference to others: demeanour, of the general behaviour as it relates to the circumstances and situation of the individual: the carriage is that part of behaviour which is of the first importance to attend to in young persons." (Crabb: Eng. Synon.)