usurpation

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English usurpacioun,^[2][3] borrowed from Old French usurpacion and Anglo-Norman usurpacion,^[4][3][2][5] from Latin ūsūrpātiō (“a taking into use, a taking possession”),^[2][5][6] a noun of action from ūsūrpātus, the past participle of ūsūrpō (“to make use of, seize for use; in Late Latin, to assume unlawfully”).^[6][7][5] The Shorter Oxford also allows a direct borrowing from the Latin noun.^[8] The Anglo-Norman word is recorded from 1278, already for an unlawful seizure of property or a title.^[9] The Latin verb, also the source of usurp, is from ūsus (“a use”) and rapiō (“to seize”).^[2][5] The Latin noun also gave Italian usurpazione and Portuguese usurpação.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The wrongful seizure or occupation of a place or property belonging to others: about 1420, in Lydgate's Assembly of Gods.^[4] Etymonline dates the word to the late 14th century, as the seizing of another's place or authority without right,^[2] and Dictionary.com to 1350–1400.^[7]

Semantic evolution

From the start the word was used of seizing power: the Middle English Dictionary's earliest quotation, a letter of Henry VI of about 1431, calls the usurpation of royal power treason,^[3] and Etymonline dates the specific sense "unlawful seizure of sovereign power" to the mid-15th century.^[2] In the Wars of the Roses the word was a political label: the Rolls of Parliament call Edward IV "late by usurpation Kyng of Englond" in 1470, and Richard III a king "by usurpacion" in 1485.^[3][4] Lydgate also used it in 1426 for an unwarranted claim or pretension,^[4] and it was soon applied to encroachment on others' rights and privileges.^[3][4] The Latin sense of taking a thing into use appears in English only in 1583.^[4] In ecclesiastical law it came to mean the ousting of a lawful patron from his right to present a cleric to a benefice, first recorded in Bacon.^[4] From 1682 to 1829 the Usurpation could mean the period of the Commonwealth.^[4] Johnson (1755) defined it as a "forcible, unjust, illegal seizure or possession", quoting Shakespeare.^[10]

Timeline

• c. 1420 – the wrongful seizure or occupation of a place or property, in Lydgate's Assembly of Gods.^[4]
• 1426 – an unwarranted claim or pretension, in Lydgate.^[4]
• c. 1431 – the unlawful seizure of royal power.^[3] The OED's first quotation for it is from the Rolls of Parliament of 1470.^[4]
• 1553 – physical encroachment on sea or land (rare).^[4]
• 1583 – the action of making use of a thing.^[4]
• before 1626 – an act of encroachment, with a plural; in ecclesiastical law, the ousting of a patron from his right of presentation.^[4]
• 1682 – the Usurpation, the period of the Commonwealth (obsolete by 1829).^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. The act of usurping: the wrongful seizure and exercise of power, authority or rights that belong to others: the usurpation of the council's powers by the governor.^[6][4][8]
2. Especially, the illegal seizure of a throne or of sovereign power.^[6][4][3]
3. An act of encroachment on another's rights or liberties.^[6][4]
4. In ecclesiastical law, the ousting of a lawful patron from presenting a cleric to a benefice.^[4]

Word family

• usurpative
• usurpatory

Related words

• usurp
• usurper
• use
• rapid

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
6. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
8. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
10. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.