preoccupation

• pre-occupation

Borrowed from Middle French préoccupation, from Latin praeoccupātiō. By surface analysis, pre- +‎ occupation or preoccupy +‎ -ation.

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˌpɹiɑkjʊˈpeɪʃən/, /ˌpriɑkjəˈpeɪʃən/
• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˌpɹiɒkjʊˈpeɪʃən/, /ˌpɹiɒkjəˈpeɪʃən/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪʃən

preoccupation (countable and uncountable, plural preoccupations)

1. The state of being preoccupied or an idea that preoccupies the mind; enthrallment.
   • 1987, Latin American Research Review, page 238:

     The same preoccupation with developing a conceptual framework is evident in David Blank's Venezuela: Politics in a Petroleum Republic, a modified version of Blank's early theses.

   • 2014, Yeoh Guan, The Other Kuala Lumpur, page 96:

     Halalisation signifies a powerful and growing preoccupation with the proliferation of […]

   • 2017 December 6, Rogers Brubaker, “The New Language of European Populism”, in brubaker.scholar.ss.ucla.edu‎^[1], page 4:

     At the same time that they invoke Christian identity, the civilizationists also stress their secularism. But there is no contradiction between the populist right’s Christianism and its secularism, since both derive from a preoccupation with Islam.

   • 2020 April, Elizabeth Kolbert, “Why we won't avoid a climate catastrophe[2]”, in National Geographic:

     As an adult, I became a journalist whose beat is the environment. In a way, I’ve turned my youthful preoccupations into a profession.

2. The act of occupying something before someone else.

• preoccupancy

• preoccupy
• occupation