occupation

From Middle English occupacioun, borrowed from Middle French occupation, from Latin occupātio, from occupō (“occupy, seize”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *keh₂p- (“to seize, grab”).

• (US) IPA^(key): /ɑkjʊˈpeɪʃən/, /ɑkjəˈpeɪʃən/
• (UK) IPA^(key): /ɒkjʊˈpeɪʃən/, /ɒkjəˈpeɪʃən/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪʃən

occupation (countable and uncountable, plural occupations)

1. An activity or task with which one occupies oneself; usually specifically the productive activity, service, trade, or craft for which one is regularly paid; a job.
2. The act, process or state of possessing a place.
   • 1960 February, R. C. Riley, “The London–Birmingham services – Past, Present and Future”, in Trains Illustrated, London: Ian Allan Publishing, ISSN 0141-9935, OCLC 35845948, page 98:

     Last year it was announced that electrification of L.M.R. main lines was to be speeded up and that it would be essential for the engineers to have the longest possible occupation of the lines involved; this would mean some retrenchment of passenger train services.

3. The control of a country or region by a hostile military and/or paramilitary force.
   • 2012 April 23, Angelique Chrisafis, “François Hollande on top but far right scores record result in French election”, in The Guardian‎:

     The lawyer and twice-divorced mother of three had presented herself as the modern face of her party, trying to strip it of unsavoury overtones after her father's convictions for saying the Nazi occupation of France was not "particularly inhumane".

• (activity with which one occupies oneself) employment, interest, line of work, profession, vocation

Borrowed from Latin occupātio, occupātiōnem. Synchronically analysable as occuper +‎ -ation.

• IPA^(key): /ɔ.ky.pa.sjɔ̃/

• Audio

  (file)

occupation f (plural occupations)

1. occupation (the occupying of a territory; something that one spends one's time on, such as a job or a hobby; act of occupying, of being an occupant)

• occuper

• “occupation”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.