tradition

Etymology

From Middle English tradicioun, from Old French tradicion, from Latin trāditiō, from the verb trādō. Doublet of treason.

noun

1. A part of culture that is passed from person to person or generation to generation, possibly differing in detail from family to family, such as the way to celebrate holidays.
   Yet if the only form of tradition, of handing down, consisted in following the ways of the immediate generation before us in a blind or timid adherence to its successes, "tradition" should positively be discouraged. 1920, T. S. Eliot, “Tradition and the Individual Talent”, in The Sacred Wood
   Evidently he did not mean to be a mere figurehead, but to carry on the old tradition of Wilsthorpe's; and that was considered to be a good thing in itself and an augury for future prosperity. 1928, Lawrence R. Bourne, chapter 2, in Well Tackled!
   After breakfast, Charles Macdoodle told Lady Mary that it was a tradition in the family that those rumbling carriages on the terrace betokened death. 1850, Charles Dickens, A Christmas Tree
2. A commonly held system.
3. An established or distinctive style or method:
   Following tradition, the victorious athlete runs a lap around the track.
4. The act of delivering into the hands of another; delivery.

verb

1. (obsolete) To transmit by way of tradition; to hand down.