different between busy vs taken

English

Etymology

From Middle English bisy, busie, from Old English bysi?, bisi? (“busy, occupied, diligent”), from Proto-West Germanic *bis?g (“diligent; zealous; busy”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian biesich (“active, diligent, hard-working, industrious”), Dutch bezig (“busy”), Low German besig (“busy”), Old Frisian bisgia (“to use”), Old English bisgian (“to occupy, employ, trouble, afflict”). The spelling with ?u? represents the pronunciation of the West Midland and Southern dialects while the Modern English pronunciation with /?/ is from the dialects of the East Midlands.

Pronunciation

• enPR: b?z'i, IPA^(key): /?b?zi/
• Rhymes: -?zi
• Hyphenation: bus?y

Adjective

busy (comparative busier, superlative busiest)

1. Crowded with business or activities; having a great deal going on.
   • 1843 — Charles Dickens. A Christmas Carol.

     Although they had but that moment left the school behind them, they were now in the busy thoroughfares of a city, where shadowy passengers passed and repassed; where shadowy carts and coaches battled for the way, and all the strife and tumult of a real city were.

     They left the busy scene, and went into an obscure part of the town, where Scrooge had never penetrated before, although he recognised its situation, and its bad repute.

2. Engaged in activity or by someone else.
   • 1719 — Daniel Defoe. Robinson Crusoe.

     And the first thing I did was to lay by a certain quantity of provisions, being the stores for our voyage; and intended in a week or a fortnight’s time to open the dock, and launch out our boat. I was busy one morning upon something of this kind, when I called to Friday, and bid him to go to the sea-shore and see if he could find a turtle or a tortoise, a thing which we generally got once a week, for the sake of the eggs as well as the flesh.

     But to return to Friday; he was so busy about his father that I could not find in my heart to take him off for some time; but after I thought he could leave him a little, I called him to me, and he came jumping and laughing, and pleased to the highest extreme: then I asked him if he had given his father any bread.

   • 1813 — Jane Austen. Pride and Prejudice.

     After walking several miles in a leisurely manner, and too busy to know anything about it, they found at last, on examining their watches, that it was time to be at home.

   • 1843 — Charles Dickens. A Christmas Carol.

     His hands were busy with his garments all this time; turning them inside out, putting them on upside down, tearing them, mislaying them, making them parties to every kind of extravagance.
3. Having a lot going on; complicated or intricate.

4. Officious; meddling.
   • 1603, William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of Othello, The Moor of Venice, IV. ii. 130:

     I will be hanged if some eternal villain, / Some busy and insinuating rogue, / Some cogging, cozening slave, to get some office, / Have not devised this slander; I'll be hanged else.

Synonyms

• swamped

Related terms

• busy as a beaver
• busy as a bee
• busybody
• busyness
• busy work

Translations

Verb

busy (third-person singular simple present busies, present participle busying, simple past and past participle busied)

1. (transitive) To make somebody busy or active; to occupy.
   • On my vacation I'll busy myself with gardening.
2. (transitive) To rush somebody. (Can we add an example for this sense?)

Derived terms

• bebusy
• forebusy
• overbusy
• unbusy

Translations

Noun

busy (plural busies)

1. (slang, Britain, Liverpudlian, derogatory) A police officer.

References

Anagrams

• buys

Middle English

Adjective

busy

1. Alternative form of bisy

English

Etymology

From Middle English taken, takenn, from Old English tacen, *?etacen, from Old Norse tekinn, from Proto-Germanic *t?kanaz, past participle of Proto-Germanic *t?kan? (“to take; grasp; touch”). Cognate with Scots takin, tane, Danish tagen, Swedish tagen, Icelandic tekin.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?te?k?n/
• Rhymes: -e?k?n
• Hyphenation: tak?en

Adjective

taken (not comparable)

1. Infatuated; fond of or attracted to.

   He was very taken with the girl, I hear.

2. (informal) In a serious romantic relationship.

   I can't ask her out, she's taken.

Translations

Verb

taken

1. past participle of take

Anagrams

• Kenta, tekan

Dutch

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -a?k?n
• IPA^(key): /?ta?k?(n)/

Etymology 1

From Middle Dutch t?ken, from Old Dutch *takan, from Proto-Germanic *takan? (“to touch”).

Verb

taken

1. (archaic, dialectal) to take, to grasp
2. (archaic, dialectal) to touch

Inflection

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the main entry.

Noun

taken

1. Plural form of taak

Anagrams

• akten, kante, tanke

Middle Dutch

Etymology

From Old Dutch *takan, from Proto-Germanic *takan? (“to touch”).

Verb

t?ken

1. to take, to grab
2. to get, to achieve

Inflection

This verb needs an inflection-table template.

Descendants

• Dutch: taken
• Limburgish: take

Further reading

• Verwijs, E.; Verdam, J. (1885–1929) , “taken”, in Middelnederlandsch Woordenboek, The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, ?ISBN

Middle English

Etymology 1

From late Old English tacan, from Old Norse taka, from Proto-Germanic *t?kan? (“to touch, grasp”).

Alternative forms

• tak, take, takon, takke, tac, tacke, thake, to
• ta, tan, tane (Northern)
• tacen, tæcen (early)

Verb

taken (third-person singular simple present taketh, present participle takinge, first-/third-person singular past indicative tok, past participle taken)

2. to take

Conjugation

Derived terms

• tak

Descendants

• English: take
• Northumbrian: tak, tyek
• Scots: tak, ta

References

• “t?ken, v.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

Etymology 2

Alternative forms

• take, takene, takun, takuth, teken
• tas, tase (Northern); ta, tan (northwest Midlands)

Verb

taken

1. present indicative/subjunctive plural of taken (“to take”)

Etymology 3

Alternative forms

• take, tak, takene, takenne, takine, takein, takon, takun, thaken, toke, token, tok, tane, tan, taked
• tain, taine, tone, ton, toine, tene (Northern); tain, taine (northeast Midlands)

Verb

taken

1. past participle of taken (“to take”)

Etymology 4

Noun

taken (plural takenes)

1. (Northern, early) Alternative form of token

Etymology 5

Verb

taken (third-person singular simple present taketh, present participle takynge, first-/third-person singular past indicative and past participle taked)

1. (Northern) Alternative form of toknen

Swedish

Noun

taken

1. definite plural of tak

Anagrams

• akten, naket, nekat, tanke