Habban

From Fresh Dictionary

Contents

Old English

Etymology

From Germanic *xaban-, from Indo-European *kap- ‘take, seize’. Cognate with Old Frisian hebba, Old Saxon hebbian (Dutch hebben), Old High German habēn (German haben), Old Norse hafa (Swedish ha, hava), Gothic 𐌷𐌰𐌱𐌰𐌽. The IE root is also the source of Latin capere, Old Irish cacht (Welsh caeth ‘slave’, Breton keaz ‘poor’), Albanian kap ‘grip’, Slavic *xopītī- (Old Church Slavonic хапѭште, Russian хапать), Baltic *kap- (Lithuanian kàpteleti, Latvian kàmpt ‘bite’).

Pronunciation

IPA: /'habban/

Verb

habban (class 3 weak)

  1. to have, to possess
    Ic hæbbe geweald micel: I have much power.
  2. used as an auxiliary with a participle to express the perfect tense
    Ðas þing we habbaþ be him gewritene: we have written these things about him.

Related words

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