Talk:occupy

RFV

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Rfv-sense: "(transitive) To conquer somewhere."

Conquest and occupation are obviously distinguishable. Is there usage in which occupy means "to conquer" and not merely "to take possession or control of"? DCDuring TALK 17:14, 12 April 2012 (UTC)

Hm, one can say a power "conquered but did/could not occupy" a place... perhaps we can look for "occupied but did/could not hold"? Interestingly, that gets one (non-durable) hit, a biography of John Byron: "Royalist commander and Governor of Chester. […] Defeated in skirmish at Brackley (Aug. 1642); occupied, but could not hold, Oxford and Worcester (1642); at Edgehill, took the cavalry reserve into the charge against orders (1642)". It also gets two durable hits, which I've placed here. There may be a better interpretation of those citations, though, than as using the sense in question ("conquer"). - -sche (discuss) 18:25, 12 April 2012 (UTC)

There is overlap in the usage and some synonym groups might include both. I just couldn't defend the definition "conquer". I think translators of less than, say, EN-3 could be seriously misled. DCDuring TALK 19:44, 12 April 2012 (UTC)

I agree; the wording needs to be greatly refined so as not to mislead. - -sche (discuss) 18:45, 13 April 2012 (UTC)

Resolved (by merging the sense into a pre-existing one). Note also this discussion. - -sche (discuss) 22:01, 22 June 2012 (UTC)

Quotations to support sense "To have sexual intercourse with"

(transitive, obsolete) To have sexual intercourse with. quotations ▲

• 1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in  (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iv]:

  God's light, these villains will make the word as odious as the word 'occupy;' which was an excellent good word before it was ill sorted

• 1867, Robert Nares A Glossary

  OCCUPY, [sensu obsc.] To possess, or enjoy.

  These villains will make the word captain, as odious as the word occupy. 2 Hen. IV, ii, 4.

  Groyne, come of age, his state sold out of hand

  For 's whore; Groyne still doth occupy his land. B. Jons. Epigr., 117.

  Many, out of their own obscene apprehensions, refuse proper and fit words, as occupy, nature, and the like. Ibid., Discoveries, vol. vii, p. 119.

  It is so used also in Rowley's New Wonder, Anc. Dr., v, 278.

It is not clear to me that these two quotations are particularly helpful. There is allusion to occupy taking on unpleasant or obscene connotations/senses, but they are unspecified. Nature is grouped as akin to occupy, but does not have the same meaning as claimed here for occupy. So the allusions in these quotations do not necessarily lead to the claimed sense. (Many other senses would be compatible with these quotations, such as *demonic possession.)

The one quotation (within the second quotation) that actually uses the word occupy, rather than merely discussing it, evidently uses it to mean to possess or to enjoy.

Can a quotation that directly supports the claimed meaning be provided? —DIV (1.144.108.83 10:16, 2 December 2023 (UTC))