preoccupied

Etymology

adj

  1. Concerned with something else; distracted; giving one's attention elsewhere.
    I was preoccupied with a deadline at work, and I forgot his birthday.
  2. (taxonomy, not comparable) Describing a scientific name that was previously used, a junior homonym.
    In 1924 J. D. Tothill revised the nearctic species in the genus Fabriciella, a name proposed by Bezzi in 1906 to replace Fabricia Rob. D. which is preoccupied. 1931, John Allen Rowe, “A revision of the males of the nearctic species in the genus Fabriciella (Tachinidae)”, in Annals of the Entomological Society of America, volume 24

verb

  1. simple past and past participle of preoccupy

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