possess

Pronunciation

• IPA: /pəˈzɛs/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English possessen, partly a back-formation from possession (1340) and partly borrowed from Old French possesser (“to have and hold, take”),^[2][3][4] from Latin possess-, past participle stem of possidēre, to have and hold, own, be master of,^[2][3][5] probably a compound of potis, able, powerful (see potent), and sedēre, to sit (see sit),^[2][3][6] literally to sit as master.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

To hold, occupy, inhabit, without regard to ownership: about 1380 in Chaucer's Boethius in Barnhart, the late 14th century in Etymonline.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

To hold as property is recorded from about 1500 (1500–20 in the OED),^[3][7] and to seize, take into one's possession, from the 1520s.^[3] The demonic sense, to have complete power over, is from the 1530s, implied in possessed,^[3] and the weakened sense, to fascinate or affect intensely, by the 1590s.^[3] To have a quality or faculty is from 1576.^[7] In law, to have possession as distinct from ownership is from 1888.^[7] Possessive, in grammar, is from about 1450.^[2]

Timeline

• 1340 – possession.^[2]
• c. 1380 – to occupy.^[2]
• c. 1500 – to own.^[3]
• 1530s – of a demon, to control.^[3]
• 1576 – to have a quality.^[7]
• 1590s – to obsess.^[3]

Modern meaning

Verb

1. To have as property; to own.
2. To have as a quality or attribute: to possess good eyesight.
3. To have knowledge or mastery of.
4. Of a feeling, idea or spirit, to dominate or control: what possessed you?

Word family

• possessor
• possessorship
• prepossessing
• repossess
• unpossessed
• unpossessing

Related words

• dispossess
• dispossessed
• possession
• possessive
• possessory
• unpossessable
• unpossessive
• potent
• sit

Usage notes

In Scots and Yorkshire legal use, to possess was to give legal possession of land.^[8]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)