habban

hab +‎ -ban

• IPA^(key):
• Hyphenation: hab‧ban

habban

1. inessive singular of hab

• hæbban

From Proto-West Germanic *habbjan, from Proto-Germanic *habjaną, from Proto-Indo-European *keh₂p- (“take, seize”).

Cognate with Old Frisian hebba, Old Saxon hebbian, Old High German habēn, Old Norse hafa, Gothic 𐌷𐌰𐌱𐌰𐌽 (haban), Latin capere, Old Irish cacht, Albanian kap (“grip”), Russian ха́пать (xápatʹ), Lithuanian kàpteleti.

• IPA^(key): /ˈxɑb.bɑn/,

habban

1. to have, possess
   • 10th century, The Wanderer:

     oþþe mec frēondlēasne · frēfran wolde,
     wēman mid wynnum. · Wāt sē þe cunnað,
     hū slīþen bið · sorg tō ġefēran,
     þām þe him lȳt hafað · lēofra ġeholena.

     or friendless me would soothe,
     allure with glees. Knows the one who undergoes,
     how tough is sorrow as a companion,
     to whom little has dear confidants for himself.

2. (auxiliary) have (used with a past participle to express the perfect tense)
   • early 12th century, the Peterborough Chronicle

     Þās þing wē habbaþ be him ġewriten.

     We have written these things about him.

   • late 10th century, Ælfric, the Old English Hexateuch, Genesis 42:36

     Þā cwæþ Iācōb heora fæder, "Bearnlēasne ġē habbaþ mē ġedōnne. Næbbe iċ Iōsēp and Simeon is on bendum; nū ġē nimaþ Beniamin æt mē."

     Then Jacob, their father, said, "You have made me childless. I don't have Joseph and Simeon is in chains; now you're taking Benjamin from me."

   • c. 995, Ælfric, Excerptiones de Arte Grammatica Anglice

     Wē habbaþ nū declīnod þā eahta frumcennedan pronomia.

     We have now declined the eight primitive pronouns.

3. (catenative) have to (+ to-infinitive)
   • The Gospel of St. Luke

     Iċ hæbbe þē tō seċġenne sum ðing

     I have to say something to you.

• As an auxiliary, habban was generally used with transitive verbs, while wesan or bēon were generally used with intransitive verbs.

• *hafol
• hæft
• hebban
• hefiġ

• Middle English: haven, have, haav, haf, hafe, haben, habben, heven, hawe, han, haan, ha
  • English: have (-'ve, -a)
  • Scots: hae, ha, hiv, have, hawe (-a)
  • Yola: ha, have

• Joseph Bosworth and T. Northcote Toller (1898) “habban”, in An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, 2nd edition, Oxford: Oxford University Press.