lifeway means one's path through life; a lifestyle or behaviour, now especially when seen as traditional. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 90 out of 100.
Why “lifeway” is a great word
LIFEWAY — [Noun] One’s path through life; a holistic, integrated manner of living, especially when traditional and inherent. From Old English līfweġ, from līf (“life”) + weġ (“way, path”). Unlike “lifestyle,” which implies a curated set of contemporary, often consumable choices, or “custom,” which denotes a single, repeatable practice of a group, a lifeway is the inherited terrain of an existence, the deep grammar of a daily walk. It is the rhythm of planting by the old moon, the calloused hand knowing the exact twist to grind corn on a metate, and the warmth of a communal fire around which the same stories are told; it is the profound quiet of a path laid down by generations, now walked by you alone.
noun
- One's path through life; a lifestyle or behaviour, now especially when seen as traditional.“And as under colonialism, in most cases ‘traditional’ values and lifeways were treated as a barrier to economic growth and social progress, and were often purposefully eradicated.”