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"occupied (taken; busy)" in seven languages

Meaningoccupied (taken; busy)

Spanish

ocupado

/okuˈpado/

learned

The everyday word for 'busy': estoy ocupado.

French

occupé

/ɔkype/

learned

Also 'busy': je suis occupé.

Italian

occupato

/okkuˈpato/

learned

Also 'busy' and 'employed': la linea è occupata.

Portuguese

ocupado

/okuˈpadu/

learned

Romanian

ocupat

/okuˈpat/

learned

Catalan

ocupat

/ukuˈpat/

learned

English

occupied

/ˈɑkjəpaɪd/

from Latin/French · Old French occuper, from Latin OCCUPĀRE

English → Italianoccupied (taken; busy)occupatoCognateSame source — inherited, learned or borrowed. You can recognize it.What English and Italian share

The Latin ancestor

OCCUPĀTUM‘seized, taken (OCCUPĀRE)’

All six sisters descend from it, unless marked otherwise below.

The story

Where English switches to busy, the sisters keep the same word: a busy person, a busy phone line and an occupied toilet are all ocupado, occupé, occupato.

English relatives: occupation, occupy

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In a sentence

  • es¿Está ocupado este asiento?
  • frCette place est occupée ?
  • itQuesto posto è occupato?
  • ptEste lugar está ocupado?
  • roE ocupat locul acesta?
  • caAquest seient està ocupat?
  • enIs this seat taken?

More words from the same Latin

More in Describing words

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