preoccupy

Etymology

It is formed from English pre- + occupy,^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]} after Latin praeoccupō (“to seize beforehand”) and Middle French preoccuper, now French préoccuper.^[2][5] The OED records the French verb in Old French in the sense "to seize prematurely" from the 13th century, as "to occupy someone's mind forcefully" from about 1355 and as "to occupy someone's mind completely in advance" from 1560, and compares Italian preoccupare.^[2] Barnhart suggests that it may also have been made as a verb to the earlier noun preoccupation, which he dates to 1552,^[3] and Collins and Klein derive it directly from the Latin verb.^[8][9] The Latin verb is formed from prae- (“before”) and occupō (“to seize”),^[3][9] which comes from ob- and capiō (“to take”).^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

To take up the mind to the exclusion of other matters: the first record is in Drant's translation of Horace's Arte of Poetrie (1567).^[2][3][6]

Semantic evolution

English took the mental sense first, the one then current in French, and the physical sense of the Latin verb only later: from 1587 the verb could mean to take possession of a place before someone else.^[2] Several senses built on "in advance" had a short life.^[2] It meant to anticipate or forestall from 1607 to 1798,^[2] and to prepossess or bias from before 1658 to 1757;^[2] Johnson (1755) still defined it as to prepossess, or to occupy by anticipation or prejudices.^[11] Jonson even used it in the 1630s for wearing clothes in advance.^[2] The OED now marks the physical sense as obsolete after 1893,^[2] although Collins and Merriam-Webster Unabridged still list it.^[8][6] What remains in everyday use is the mental sense, along with the adjective preoccupied, absorbed in thought, which Barnhart dates to 1849, in Charlotte Brontë's Shirley.^[3]

Timeline

• 1567 – to engross the mind to the exclusion of other matters, in Drant's translation of Horace.^[2][3][6] Etymonline dates it to the 1560s.^[4]
• 1587 – to occupy a place in advance or before another person, in the new edition of Holinshed's Chronicles.^[2] Etymonline dates this sense to the 1620s.^[4]
• 1607 – to anticipate or forestall (obsolete by 1798).^[2]
• 1631 – in the passive, to be dressed in something in advance, in Jonson (rare and obsolete).^[2]
• before 1658 – to prepossess or bias (obsolete by 1757).^[2]
• 1822 – to prepare or fill something in advance (rare, obsolete by 1869).^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To fill the thoughts of someone, leaving little room for anything else; to engross: Worries about the rent preoccupied her all week.^[8][6][2]
2. To occupy or take possession of something before someone else does.^[8][6][7]
3. (obsolete, 1658–1757) To prepossess or bias.^[2][7][11]

Word family

• preoccupier
• preoccupied

Related words

• preoccupation
• occupy

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
9. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
11. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.