occupation
(ɒkjʊˈpeɪʃən)
[a. F. occupation (12th c. in Hatz.-Darm.), Anglo-F. ocupacioun (1292 in sense 1): ad. L. occupātiōn-em seizing, taking possession, employment, n. of action from occupā-re to seize, occupy.]
The action of occupying or condition of being occupied, or that in which this action is embodied (in senses of the verb).
1. a. The action of taking possession, esp. of a place or of land; seizure, as by military conquest, etc.; entrance upon possession.
| [1292 Britton ii. ii. §3 Terre ou autre heritage dount nul n'est en seysine, et..tote autre chose guerpie, demoraunt hors de chescuni seysine, des queles choses homme se pora purchacer par ocupacioun.] 1552 Huloet, Occupation as deprehension, Catalepsis. 1624 Bacon Consid. War with Spain, I speak not of matches or unions; but of arms, occupations, invasions. 1628 Coke On Litt. i. 249 b, Occupation..signifieth a putting out of a mans Freehold in time of warre, and it is all one with a disseisin in time of peace. 1659 B. Harris Parival's Iron Age 372 Wars begun, and carried on..for the.. occupation, or seazure of Countries. 1767 Blackstone Comm. II. xxv. (1830) 393 Occupation, that is, hiving or including them, gives the property in bees. 1893 Traill Soc. Eng. Introd. 48 Its inhabitants must have possessed the art of working in metals before the Roman occupation. |
b. spec., by Germany and her allies during the war of 1939–45;
usu., the period during which a country was held by German, etc., troops, or the state of being held by such troops.
| 1940 A. Huxley Let. 7 July (1969) 455 Jehanne was out of Paris during the occupation. 1957 Times Lit. Suppl. 27 Dec. 783/3 The particular man whose life has been conditioned by the hot North African sun and the cold chill of the Occupation. 1972 Guardian 9 Sept. 12/4 The programme is..divided into three parts... There is life under the occupation..as drawn from experience in occupied Europe. |
2. a. Actual holding or possession,
esp. of a place or of land; rarely, also, of an office or position; tenure; occupancy.
army of occupation, an army left to occupy a newly conquered country or region until the conclusion of hostilities or establishment of a settled government.
| 1387 Trevisa Higden (Rolls) VII. 305 Forto begile þe occupacioun of þe pope. c 1475 Crabhouse Reg. (1889) 59 The viij yere of the ocupacion of the same Jane, Prioresse. 1574 tr. Littleton's Tenures 4 Suche thinges as a man may have a manuell occupacion, possession, or resceyte. 1652 Needham tr. Selden's Mare Cl. 196 If to such a corporal occupation, as this, wee add also, that they excluded others from the Sea. 1791 W. Jessop Rep. River Witham 12 A Swivel-bridge over the Witham for the occupation of the common. 1842 Alison Hist. Europe xcv. §24 Maintaining the army of occupation. 1870 Freeman Norm. Conq. I. App. AA. 621 Owners of lands then in monastic occupation. 1872 E. W. Robertson Hist. Ess. 160 The Irish peasant..has..confounded the occupation with the ownership of the land. Mod. During his occupation of the house and land. |
b. A piece of land occupied by a tenant; a holding. (
local.
Cf. occupying vbl. n. 2.)
| 1792 A. Young Trav. France 411 These small occupations are a real loss of labour;..people are fed upon them, whose time is worth little or nothing. 1807 Vancouver Agric. Devon (1813) 108 The occupations fluctuate between 30l. and 120l. per annum. 1879 T. H. S. Escott England I. 59 Held by tenantry whose occupations range from 100 to 500 acres each. |
3. The taking up of space or time.
rare.
| 1460–70 Bk. Quintessence 6 Wherby ȝe may make oure quinte essence wiþoute cost or traueile, and withoute occupacioun and lesynge of tyme. 1815 Jane Austen Emma i. x, Stooping down in complete occupation of the foot-path. |
4. a. The being occupied or employed with, or engaged in something; that in which one is engaged; employment, business.
† to have in occupation, to be occupied or busied with.
Obs.| a 1340 Hampole Psalter cxviii[i]. 47 My thoght & myn occupacioun sall be in þi wordis. a 1420 Hoccleve De Reg. Princ. 281 Som man, for lak of occupacioun, Museþ forþer þanne his wyt may strecche. c 1510 More Picus Wks. 14/2 Vse them both, aswel studie as worldly occupacion. 1523 Fitzherb. Husb. §23 It is not conuenient, to haue hey and corne bothe in occupation at one tyme. 1776 Gibbon Decl. & F. xiii. I. 394 Minds, long exercised in business..in the loss of power..principally regret the want of occupation. 1833–6 J. Eagles Sketcher (1856) 347 By the intense occupation of his mind. 1868 Freeman Norm. Conq. II. vii. 78 Harold and Swend..by their invasion..gave him full occupation throughout the year. |
b. with
pl. A particular action or course of action in which one is engaged,
esp. habitually or statedly; an employment, business, calling.
| c 1340 Hampole Prose Tr. 3 Dos a-waye coryous and vayne ocupacyons. c 1386 Chaucer Melib. ¶625 He that is ydel, and casteth hym to no bisynesse ne occupacion. a 1450 Knt. de la Tour (1868) 7 Thenke not on none other worldly ocupaciones. 1467 in Eng. Gilds (1870) 388 Doynge hur office & occupacion. 1513 in W. H. Turner Select. Rec. Oxford 10 The craft or occupation of brewers. 1589 Pappe w. Hatchet D ij b, Though he bee but a cobler by occupation. 1604 Shakes. Oth. iii. iii. 357 Farewell: Othello's Occupation's gone. 1791 Burke Th. French Aff. Wks. 1842 I. 579 Condorcet..is a man of another sort of birth, fashion, and occupation from Brissot. 1868 Ruskin Arrows of Chace (1880) II. 193 The character of men depends more on their occupations than on any teaching we can give them. |
† c. spec. Mechanical or mercantile employment; handicraft; trade.
Obs.| 1530 Proper Dialogue 167 in Rede me, etc. (Arb.) 138 Artificers & men of occupacion. 1576 Fleming Panopl. Epist. 364 Take awaye learning from among men, and how shall trades mechanical, occupations (I meane) be maintained? 1607 Shakes. Cor. iv. vi. 97 You that stood so much Vpon the voyce of occupation and The breath of Garlicke-eaters. |
† 5. Use, employment (
of a thing).
Obs.| 1388 Wyclif 2 Macc. iv. 14 In ocupaciouns of a disch [gloss ether pleying with a ledun disch]. 1494 Fabyan Chron. vi. clxx. 165 Churches and temples they tourned to vse of stables, and other vyle occupacyons. 1552 Huloet, Occupation or vse, vsus. 1582 Reg. Gild Corp. Chr. York (1872) 233 note, My wyfe..shall have the occupacion of the said silver spoones duringe hir lyfe. 1703 Moxon Mech. Exerc. 136 Renders the whole Floor firm enough for all common Occupation. |
† 6. The exercising (
of any business or office); exercise, discharge.
Obs.| 1432 Paston Lett. I. 32 Excercise and occupacion of the Kinges service. 1459 Rolls of Parlt. V. 367/2 To recovere the seid penaltees for eny occupation of their seid office for the premisses. 1483 Gild of the Bakers, Exeter in Eng. Gilds 336 Yn occupacyon of the said crafte. |
7. attrib., as
occupation bridge, a bridge for the use of the occupiers of the land,
e.g. one connecting parts of a farm, etc., separated by a canal or railway;
occupation centre, an establishment where occupational therapy is practised or where the mentally handicapped are trained or employed;
occupation disease, an occupational disease;
occupation franchise, the right to vote at parliamentary elections as a tenant or occupier;
occupation neurosis Med., a painful and disabling spasm affecting muscles used more than normally because of the person's occupation;
occupation number Physics, the number of particles in a system that are in any given state;
occupation road, a private road for the use of the occupiers of the land. Also, in military uses, as
occupation army,
occupation forces,
occupation troops; in archæological use, as
occupation floor,
occupation layer,
occupation level,
occupation scatter,
occupation site.
| 1918 E. S. Farrow Dict. Mil. Terms 414 Occupation Army, an army that remains in possession of a newly conquered country, retaining it as a kind of hostage, until peace is signed and the war indemnity paid. 1976 T. Allbeury Only Good German xiv. 100 A goon on each staircase and the lift doors padlocked... It's like an occupation army. |
| 1837 Whittock, etc. Bk. Trades (1842) 207 The occupation bridge, at Rotterdam,..consists of two separate segments. 1878 F. S. Williams Midl. Railw. 509 Soon after..we come to an occupation bridge. |
| 1940 Frazer & Stallybrass Text-bk. Public Health (ed. 10) xix. 440 If the home conditions are good and the defective's condition is suitable he may attend at an occupation centre where simple occupational training can be given. 1958 [see day-hospital s.v. day n. 23 a]. 1965 Peters & Kinnaird Health Services Admin. vii. 255 The [Education] Authorities establish training and occupation centres for the lower grades of the mentally handicapped who cannot take education in ordinary educational subjects. |
| 1900 Dorland Med. Dict. 209/1 Occupation-disease. 1901 Brit. Med. Jrnl. 17 Aug. 405/1 (heading) The medical profession and the control of occupation diseases. 1930 F. B. Young Jim Redlake iii. iii. 326 Overcrowding, short commons, adulterated food, occupation diseases—they're all just words in a newspaper. 1959 J. D. Clark Prehist. S. Afr. plate 4 (caption) Handaxes, cleavers, and waste flakes of evolved Chelles-Acheul culture on occupation floors. 1971 W. Tucker This Witch ii. 20 The native beer was vile... The occupation forces did their drinking elsewhere. |
| 1884 Gladstone Sp. 28 Feb., There were four occupation franchises in boroughs. One of them was 10l. clear yearly value, and the other three were the lodger, the household, and the service franchise. 1895 Westm. Gaz. 15 Jan. 4/3 No sufficient allowance was made for tenant's improvements, nor for his occupation interest in his holding. |
| 1953 R. J. C. Atkinson Field Archaeol. (ed. 2) i. 39 The chief use of such detectors is in the excavation of graves and occupation-layers in which metal objects may be expected to occur. |
| 1935 Discovery Nov. 343/1 Further excavations..have brought to light older occupation-levels and hearth-marks. |
| 1888 W. R. Gowers Man. Dis. Nervous Syst. II. v. 656 The term ‘occupation neuroses’, adopted from the German (‘Beschaftigungs-neurosen’), is a convenient designation for a group of maladies in which certain symptoms are excited by the attempt to perform some often-repeated muscular action, commonly one that is involved in the occupation of the sufferer... The most frequent symptom is spasm. 1911 Jrnl. Nerv. & Mental Dis. XXXVIII. 107 An occupation neurosis is literally a fatigue cramp, and is characterized by spasms of muscles concerned in special movements, and brought on whenever these special movements, such as writing, are attempted. 1958 Sykes & Bell tr. Landau & Lifshitz' Quantum Mech. ix. 215 Let us seek to construct a mathematical formalism in which the occupation numbers..of the states (and not the co-ordinates of the particles) play the part of independent variables. 1974 G. Reece tr. Hund's Hist. Quantum Theory xiii. 180 Jordan was thus entitled to express his hope of a quantum wave theory of matter in which the numbers of particles would be the occupation numbers Nr of the discrete quantum wave states. |
| 1852 J. Wiggins Embanking 132 Making the requisite occupation roads. |
| 1954 S. Piggott Neolithic Cultures ix. 271 The occupation-scatter of small sherds and flints. |
| 1939 Oxoniensa IV. 6 The region between Oxford and Northampton is notoriously, but probably deceptively, barren of occupation-sites. 1948 N.Y. Jrnl. American (Sunday Mail ed.) 9 May 1/7 Police and U.S. occupation troops are prepared for bloodshed. 1975 R. L. Duncan Dragons at Gate (1976) iv. 32 On the day of the surrender, before the Occupation troops could arrive, Takaeshi..set out into Tokyo Bay, and blew himself up. |
Hence
† occuˈpationer, one engaged in an occupation (
obs.);
occuˈpationist, one who advocates or favours occupation (sense 1);
occuˈpationless a., having no occupation, unoccupied, idle.
| 1592 G. Harvey Pierce's Super. (1593) 190 Let the braue enginer,..maruelous Vulcanist, and euery Mercuriall *occupationer..be respected. |
| 1892 Glasgow Herald 12 Feb. 6/3 No more a permanent *occupationist [of Egypt] now than he was an immediate evacuationist some years ago. |
| 1890 Temple Bar Mag. Nov. 314 To sit *occupationless, vaguely waiting. |