also pre-occupancy, "prior occupation, act of taking possession before another," 1734, from pre- "before" + occupancy.
Entries linking to preoccupancy
pre-
word-forming element meaning "before," from Old French pre- and Medieval Latin pre-, both from Latin prae (adverb and preposition) "before in time or place," from PIE *peri- (source also of Oscan prai, Umbrian pre, Sanskrit pare "thereupon," Greek parai "at," Gaulish are- "at, before," Lithuanian prie "at," Old Church Slavonic pri "at," Gothic faura, Old English fore "before"), extended form of root *per- (1) "forward," hence "beyond, in front of, before."
The Latin word was active in forming verbs. Also see prae-. Sometimes in Middle English muddled with words in pro- or per-.
occupancy n.
1590s, "condition of being an occupant;" from occupant + abstract noun suffix -cy. Meaning "fact of occupying" is from 1833; that of "proportion of available space that is occupied" is attested by 1974.