different between buy vs occupy

English

Etymology

From Middle English bien, biggen, buggen, from Old English byc?an (“to buy, pay for, acquire, redeem, ransom, procure, get done, sell”), from Proto-West Germanic *buggjan, from Proto-Germanic *bugjan? (“to buy”), of uncertain origin. Perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *b??g?- (“to bend”), or from Proto-Indo-European *b?eug?- (“to take away, deliver”).

Cognate with Scots by (“to buy, purchase”), obsolete Dutch beugen (“to buy”), Old Saxon buggian, buggean (“to buy”), Old Norse byggja (“to procure a wife, lend at interest, let out”), Gothic ???????????????????????? (bugjan, “to buy”). The spelling with “u” is from the Southwest, while the pronunciation with /a?/ is from the East Midlands.

Pronunciation

• enPR: b?, IPA^(key): /ba?/
• Rhymes: -a?
• Homophones: bi, bye, by

Verb

buy (third-person singular simple present buys, present participle buying, simple past bought, past participle bought or (rare, dialectal) boughten)

1. (transitive) To obtain (something) in exchange for money or goods
   • 1793, Benjamin Franklin, Autobiography

     Buy what thou hast no need of, and ere long thou wilt sell thy necessaries.

2. (transitive) To obtain, especially by some sacrifice.
3. (transitive) To bribe.

4. (transitive) To be equivalent to in value.

5. (transitive, informal) to accept as true; to believe

6. (intransitive) To make a purchase or purchases, to treat (for a drink, meal or gift)

7. (poker slang, transitive) To make a bluff, usually a large one.

Alternative forms

• buie (archaic)

Synonyms

• (obtain in exchange for money): cheap (obsolete), purchase
• (accept as true): accept, believe, swallow (informal), take on
• ((intransitive) make a purchase): make a buy

Antonyms

• (obtain in exchange for money): cheap (obsolete), sell, vend
• (accept as true): disbelieve, reject, pitch

Derived terms

Related terms

• aby

Translations

Noun

buy (plural buys)

1. Something which is bought; a purchase.

Antonyms

• sale

Derived terms

• buydown
• buyout
• impulse buy

Translations

References

• buy in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• buy in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

Anagrams

• BYU

Tatar

Noun

buy

1. length

Wolof

Noun

buy

1. A baobab fruit.

English

Etymology

From Middle English occupien, occupyen, borrowed from Old French occuper, from Latin occup?re (“to take possession of, seize, occupy, take up, employ”), from ob (“to, on”) + capi? (“to take”). Doublet of occupate, now obsolete.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /??kj?pa?/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /??kj?pa?/
• Hyphenation: oc?cu?py

Verb

occupy (third-person singular simple present occupies, present participle occupying, simple past and past participle occupied)

1. (transitive, of time) To take or use.
   1. To fill.
   2. To possess or use the time or capacity of; to engage the service of.

   3. To fill or hold (an official position or role).

   4. To hold the attention of.

2. (transitive) To take or use space.
   1. To fill space.

   2. To live or reside in.

      • The better apartments were already occupied.
   3. (military) To have, or to have taken, possession or control of (a territory).
      • 1940, in The China monthly review, volumes 94-95, page 370 [1]:

        The Japanese can occupy but cannot hold, and what they can hold they cannot hold long, was the opinion of General Pai Chung-hsi, Chief of the General Staff of the Chinese Army, […]

      • 1975, Esmé Cecil Wingfield-Stratford, King Charles and King Pym, 1637-1643, page 330 [2]:

        Rupert, with his usual untamable energy, was scouring the country — but at first in the wrong direction, that of Aylesbury, another keypoint in the outer ring of Oxford defences, which he occupied but could not hold.

      • 1983, Arthur Keppel-Jones, Rhodes and Rhodesia: The White Conquest of Zimbabwe, 1884-1902, page 462:

        One of the rebel marksmen, who had taken up position on a boulder, was knocked off it by the recoil of his weapon every time he fired. Again the attack achieved nothing. Positions were occupied, but could not be held.

      • 1991, Werner Spies, John William Gabriel, Max Ernst collages: the invention of the surrealist universe, page 333:

        Germany occupied France for three years while France struggled to make payments that were a condition of surrender.

      • 2006, John Michael Francis, Iberia and the Americas: Culture, Politics, and History, page 496:

        Spain occupied, but could not populate, and its failure to expand Florida led Britain to consider the peninsula a logical extension of its colonial holdings.

   4. (surveying) To place the theodolite or total station at (a point).
3. (transitive, obsolete) To have sexual intercourse with.
   • 1590s, William Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part 2, II.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.

4. (obsolete) To do business in; to busy oneself with.

   • All the ships of the sea, with their mariners, were in thee to occupy the merchandise.

   • 1551, Ralph Robinson (tr.), Sir Thomas More's Utopia (in Latin), 1516

     not able to occupy their old crafts

5. (obsolete) To use; to expend; to make use of.

   • all the gold that was occupied for the work

   • 1551, Ralph Robinson (tr.), Sir Thomas More's Utopia (in Latin), 1516

     They occupy not money themselves.

Conjugation

Synonyms

• (to possess or use the time or capacity of): employ, busy
• (to have sexual intercourse with): coitize, go to bed with, sleep with; see also Thesaurus:copulate with

Derived terms

• occupier

Related terms

• occupant
• occupation

Translations

See also

• Appendix:American Dialect Society words of the year

References

• occupy at OneLook Dictionary Search
• occupy in Keywords for Today: A 21st Century Vocabulary, edited by The Keywords Project, Colin MacCabe, Holly Yanacek, 2018.
• Oxford English Dictionary, 1884–1928, and First Supplement, 1933.
• occupy in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• occupy in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.