occupy

英文詞源

occupy

occupy: [14] Occupy comes via Anglo-Norman *occupier from Latin occupāre ‘seize’, a compound verb formed from the intensive prefix ob- and capere ‘take’ (source of English capture, chase, etc). In the 16th and 17th centuries it was used in English for ‘have sex (with)’ (‘as king Edwin occupied Alfgifa his concubine’, John Bale, English Votaries 1546), and fell temporarily out of ‘polite’ usage: as Doll Tearsheet complained in Shakespeare’s 2 Henry IV 1597, ‘A captain! God’s light, these villains will make the word ‘captain’ as odious as the word ‘occupy’, which was an excellent good word before it was ill sorted’.
=> captive, capture, chase

occupy (v.)

mid-14c., "to take possession of," also "to take up space or time, employ (someone)," irregularly borrowed from Old French occuper "occupy (a person or place), hold, seize" (13c.) or directly from Latin occupare "take over, seize, take into possession, possess, occupy," from ob "over" (see ob-) + intensive form of capere "to grasp, seize" (see capable). The final syllable of the English word is difficult to explain, but it is as old as the record; perhaps from a modification made in Anglo-French. During 16c.-17c. a common euphemism for "have sexual intercourse with" (sense attested from early 15c.), which caused it to fall from polite usage.

"A captaine? Gods light these villaines wil make the word as odious as the word occupy, which was an excellent good worde before it was il sorted." [Doll Tearsheet in "2 Henry IV"]

Related: Occupied; occupying.