occupancen.
/ˈɒkjʊp(ə)ns/, U.S. /ˈɑkjəp(ə)ns/ = occupancy n. 1; (Geography) the inhabiting and modification of an area by human beings.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > possession > [noun] > occupancy
occupying1425
occupation1433
occupancy1629
occupance1814
society > law > legal possession > [noun] > occupation as constituting title
occupation?1387
occupancy1629
occupance1814
society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabited place > [noun] > condition of being inhabited
furniture1526
settledness1571
improvement1670
inhabitancy1681
occupance1932
1814 W. Scott Diary 4 Aug. in J. G. Lockhart Mem. Life Scott (1837) III. iv. 145 The chief stress is laid upon occupance.
1880 M. G. Fetherstonhaugh Alan Dering II. x. 138 Lady Ruthven herself was in occupance of the pretty mansion.
1932 Sci. Monthly 35 266/1 France..is strikingly an aggregation of ‘pays’, each of which has its distinctive character stamped upon every aspect of the natural environment and upon every form of human occupance thereof.
1934 Ann. Assoc. Amer. Geographers 24 81 Occupance refers not only to..economic activities but also to other activities..such as the construction of buildings, roads, and so on. The word includes also the results as well as the process of living in an area.
1974 F. Emery Oxfordshire Landscape i. 35 People who could cultivate the land with digging-sticks in order to grow cereals, covering the ground..with a ‘slash-and-burn’ or shifting occupance of the kind we still meet today in certain forest environments.
1991 R. J. Johnston Question of Place 73 The environment is the source of all ingredients for human subsistence..; how it is perceived, and how its potential as a resource base is realized, are the foundations of the contemporary human occupance of the earth.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2004; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1814