Other forms: occupied, occupies, occupying
To occupy something is to take up the space it has — to be in it, on it, or filling it. The wardrobe occupies the whole end wall; a coat occupying the seat beside someone on a full train.
Time behaves the same way: the meeting occupied most of the morning. With people it means keeping them busy, so a box of bricks occupies a toddler for ten minutes, and to be occupied with something is to have your hands and your head full. Then the heavy sense: an army occupies a country, protesters occupy a square, and the noun for that is occupation — which is also the word for your job. Occupied is what the lock on a train toilet says, while occupant and occupancy live on forms and in buildings. The plainest use of all is the housing one: the flat has been occupied since March.
1verboccupyTo fill a space or a period of time.
“The new sofa occupies half the living room.”
2verbliveTo live in or use a building or room.
“The family has occupied the house since 1998.”
3verbholdTo hold a job or an official position.
“She occupies the chair her father once held.”
4verbkeepTo keep someone busy.
“The puzzle occupied him for the whole flight.”
5verbmoveTo move into a place and take control of it, by force or as a protest.
“Troops occupied the port within a day.”
Latin occupō meant to seize and take possession, built from ob, on or towards, and capiō, to take, and behind those a Proto-Indo-European root *kap-, to grab. The grabbing is still audible in the military sense and has vanished from the furniture one. Old French occuper handed the word on to Middle English occupien.
Proto-Indo-European
*kap-
Proto-Indo-European
*kap-<id:seize> — to seize, grab
Latin
occupō — to take possession of, seize, occupy, take up, employ
Old French
occuper
Middle English
occupien
English, today
occupy
Built from
From Middle English occupien, occupyen, borrowed from Old French occuper, from Latin occupō (“to take possession of, seize, occupy, take up, employ”), from ob (“to, on”) + capiō (“to take”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European kap- (“to seize, grab”). a doublet of occupate, now obsolete.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA