Etymology
1. O.E.
habban "to own, possess," from P.Gmc.
*khaf- (cf. O.N.
hafa, O.S.
hebbjan, O.Fris.
habba, Ger.
haben, Goth.
haban "to have"), from PIE
*kap- "to grasp" (see capable). Not related to L.
habere, despite similarity in form and sense; the L. cognate is
capere "seize." O.E. second pers. sing. pres.
hæfst, third pers. sing. pres.
hæfð became M.E.
hast, hath, while O.E.
-bb- became
-v- in
have. The p.p.
had developed from O.E.
gehæfd. Sense of "possess, have at one's disposal" (
I have a book) is a shift from older languages, where the thing possessed was made the subject and the possessor took the dative case (e.g. L.
est mihi liber "I have a book," lit. "there is to me a book"). Used as an auxiliary in O.E., too (esp. to form present perfect tense); the word has taken on more functions over time; Mod.Eng.
he had better would have been O.E.
him (dat.)
wære betere. To
have to for "must" (1579) is from sense of "possess as a duty or thing to be done" (O.E.).
Have-not "poor person" first recorded 1836. Phrase
have a nice day first attested 1971.
You never had it so good (1946) was said to be the stock answer to any complaints about U.S. Army life. Phrase
have (noun), will (verb) is from 1954, originally from comedian Bob Hope, in the form
Have tux, will travel; Hope described it as typical of vaudevillians' ads in "Variety," indicating a willingness to perform anywhere, any time.
2. Etymology tree
3. substratebor.?
4. Proto-Indo-European *kap-der.
5. Proto-Germanic *habjaną
6. Proto-West Germanic *habbjan
7. Old English habban
8. Middle English haven
9. English have
10. From Middle English haven, from Old English habban (“to have”), from Proto-West Germanic *habbjan, from Proto-Germanic *habjaną (“to have”), durative of *habjaną (“to lift, take up”), from Proto-Indo-European *kapyéti, an imperfective formation to the root *kap- (“to take, seize, catch”). Related to heave.
11. Since there is no common Indo-European root for a transitive possessive verb have (notice that Latin habeō is not etymologically related to English have), Proto-Indo-European probably lacked the have structure. Instead, the third person forms of be were used, with the possessor in dative case, compare Latin mihi est / sunt, literally to me is / are.
12. The nonstandard etymology 1, verb sense 34 (“to be (an age)”) is a semantic loan from other languages’ term for “to possess, own”, such as French avoir, Polish mieć, and Spanish tener.
13. Cognates
14. Cognate with Scots hae (“to have”), North Frisian haa, heewe (“to have”), Saterland Frisian häbe, hääbe (“to have”), West Frisian hawwe (“to have”), Afrikaans hê (“to have”), Alemannic German haa, heen, hoh, hä, häbä, hè (“to have”), Bavarian hobm, hobn, hoom, håbn (“to have”), Cimbrian haban, hen, håm (“to have”), Dutch and Low German hebben (“to have”), German haben (“to have”), Limburgish haane, höbbe (“to have”), Luxembourgish hunn (“to have”), Mòcheno hom (“to have”), Vilamovian hon (“to have”), Yiddish האָבן (hobn, “to have”), Danish have (“to have”), Elfdalian åvå (“to have”), Faroese hava (“to have”), Icelandic hafa (“to have”), Norwegian Bokmål ha (“to have”), Norwegian Nynorsk ha, hava, have, hå (“to have”), Swedish ha, hafva, hava (“to have”), Gothic 𐌷𐌰𐌱𐌰𐌽 (haban, “to have”), Albanian kap (“to grab, catch, grip”), Latin capiō (“take”, verb), Russian хапать (xapatʹ, “to seize”). See: Middle English '
haven', Old English '
habban', Proto-Germanic '
*habjaną', Proto-Indo-European '
*kapyéti', Scots '
hae', Frisian, Saterlandic 'häbe', Afrikaans '
hê', Alemannic German '
haa', Cimbrian 'haban', German, old spelling '
haben', Luxembourgish '
hunn', Wymysorys '
hon', Danish '
have', Elfdalian '
åvå', Faroese '
hava', Icelandic '
hafa', Norwegian '
ha', Norwegian, nynorsk '
ha', Swedish '
ha', Albanian '
kap', Latin '
capiō', Russian '
хапать'.
Verbs referencing "have"
Danish
have, Low Saxon hebben, Norwegian, nynorsk
ha, Spanish
caber, Albanian
kam, German, old spelling
haben, Esperanto
havi, Sranan
abi, Alemannic German
hoh, Alemannic German
heen, Alemannic German
hè, Alemannic German
hä, Alemannic German
haa, Latin
capio, Ido havar, Cimbrian haban, Alemannic German
häbä.