Etymologically
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occupatus

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Forms

occupātus (feminine occupāta, neuter occupātum, comparative occupātior, superlative occupātissimus); first/second-declension adjective[1]

Etymology

It is the perfect participle of occupō (“to seize, occupy”), used as an adjective.[1][2] The verb is formed from ob- and the stem of capiō (“to take”),[1] which de Vaan traces to Proto-Italic *kapi- and Proto-Indo-European *kh₂p-i- (“to seize”), perhaps a non-Indo-European ⟨*kap-⟩, cognate with Gothic 𐌷𐌰𐍆𐌾𐌰𐌽 (hafjan, “to lift”).[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler gives Plautus as its first author.[4]

Semantic evolution

In the senses of the verb it means seized or occupied, and especially busy, occupied or engaged.[1][2] Church Latin glosses it “occupied, busy, engaged”.[5] A late fourth-declension noun occupātus means “employment, occupation” (Claudianus Mamertus in Sidonius).[2][4]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus.[4]
  • c. 431–486 AD – The noun occupātus in Sidonius' letters.[2][4]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Busy, occupied, engaged.[1][5]
  2. Seized, taken possession of.[1][2]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  2. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  3. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  4. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  5. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson