Word: have Part of Speech: verb Etymology: Etymology tree substratebor.? Proto-Indo-European *kap-der. Proto-Germanic *habjaną Proto-West Germanic *habbjan Old English habban Middle English haven English have 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. 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. Cognates 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”). Pronunciation: /ˈhæv/, /ˈhav/, /ˈhɛv/, /ˈheɪ̯v/, /ˈ(h)əv/ 1. To possess, own. Labels: transitive Example: I have a house and a car. 2. To hold, as something at someone's disposal. Labels: transitive Example: Look what I have here—a frog I found on the street! Example: Do you have the key? 3. To include as a part, ingredient, or feature. Labels: transitive Example: The stove has a handle. The shirt has sleeves. Example: The words cow and dog have three letters. 4. Used to state the existence or presence of someone in a specified relationship with the subject. Labels: transitive Example: I have two sisters. Example: She doesn’t have any friends. 5. To consume or use up (a particular substance or resource, especially food or drink). Labels: transitive Example: I have breakfast at six o'clock. Example: You've already had five drinks! 6. To undertake or perform (an action or activity). Labels: transitive Example: Can I have a look at that? Example: He's having a tantrum about it. 7. To be scheduled to attend, undertake or participate in. Labels: transitive Example: What class do you have right now? I have English. Example: Fred won’t be able to come to the party; he has a meeting that day. 8. To experience, go through, undergo. Labels: transitive Example: We had a hard year last year, with the locust swarms and all that. Example: He had surgery on his hip yesterday. 9. To be afflicted with, suffer from. Labels: transitive Example: He had a cold last week. 10. Used in forming the perfect aspect. Labels: auxiliary, with-past-participle Example: I have already eaten today. Example: Mom's gone real mad, she has. 11. Used as an interrogative verb before a pronoun to form a tag question, echoing a previous use of 'have' as an auxiliary verb or, in certain cases, main verb. (For further discussion, see the appendix English tag questions.) Example: They haven’t eaten dinner yet, have they? Example: Your wife hasn’t been reading that nonsense, has she? 12. See have to. Labels: auxiliary, with-infinitive, with-to Example: I have to go. 13. To give birth to. Labels: transitive Example: The couple always wanted to have children. Example: My wife is having the baby right now! 14. To obtain. Labels: informal, passive, usually Example: The substance you describe can't be had at any price. Example: Out there is a fortune waiting to be had / You think I'll let it go you're mad / You've got another thing comin' 15. To engage in sexual intercourse with. Labels: transitive Example: He’s always bragging about how many women he’s had. Example: Tame midweek stress the fun way. Have each other before dinner to reconnect after a long day. 16. To accept as a romantic partner. Labels: transitive Example: Despite my protestations of love, she would not have me. 17. To cause to, by a command, request or invitation. Labels: transitive, with-infinitive Example: They had me feed their dog while they were out of town. Example: Her very boyfriend is the person the criminal has do most of her dirty deeds. 18. To cause to be. Labels: transitive, with-adjective Example: He had him arrested for trespassing. Example: I'd better have my watch repaired today: tomorrow I have to have my hair cut before having pictures taken for my passport. 19. To be affected by an occurrence. (Used in supplying a topic that is a small clause.) Labels: transitive, with-infinitive Example: The hospital had several patients contract pneumonia last week. Example: I’ve had three people today tell me my hair looks nice. 20. To depict as being. Labels: transitive, with-adjective Example: Their stories differed; he said he’d been at work when the incident occurred, but her statement had him at home that entire evening. Example: Anton Rogan, 8, was one of the runners-up in the Tick Tock Box short story competition, not Anton Rogers as we had it. 21. To defeat in a fight; take. Labels: UK, slang, transitive Example: I could have him! 22. To inflict punishment or retribution on. Labels: UK, slang, transitive Example: When we did a rerecorded version for Top of the Pops, the Musicians' Union bloke said, "If I think you're making strings sounds out of a synthesiser, I'm going to have you. Video Killed the Radio Star is putting musicians out of business." Example: You broke the window! Teacher’ll have you for that! 23. To be able to speak (a language). Labels: transitive Example: I have no German. 24. To feel or be (especially painfully) aware of. Labels: transitive Example: Dan certainly has arms today, probably from scraping paint off four columns the day before. 25. To trick, to deceive. Labels: informal, often, passive, transitive Example: I bought a laptop online but it never arrived. I think I've been had! Example: You had me alright! I never would have thought that was just a joke. 26. To allow; to tolerate. Labels: transitive Example: The child screamed incessantly for his mother to buy him a toy, but she wasn't having any of it. Example: I asked my dad if I could go to the concert this Thursday, but he wouldn't have it since it's a school night. 27. To believe, buy, be taken in by. Labels: often, transitive Example: I made up an excuse as to why I was out so late, but my wife wasn't having any of it. 28. To host someone; to take in as a guest. Labels: transitive Example: Thank you for having me! 29. To get a reading, measurement, or result from an instrument or calculation. Labels: transitive Example: What do you have for problem two? Example: I have two contacts on my scope. 30. To consider a court proceeding that has been completed; to begin deliberations on a case. Labels: transitive Example: We’ll schedule closing arguments for Thursday, and the jury will have the case by that afternoon. 31. To make an observation of (a bird species). Labels: transitive Example: For some reason, "I had a Freckled Duck today" never seems to work as a pick-up line. 32. To capture or actively hold someone's attention or interest. Labels: transitive Example: 1977-1980, Lou Sullivan, personal diary, quoted in 2019, Ellis Martin, Zach Ozma (editors), We Both Laughed In Pleasure Thurs nite I went to see Lou Reed […] and Lou, oh God, he completely had me. I was lost at the foot of a god. 33. To grasp the meaning of; comprehend. Labels: transitive Example: Ah! Now I have it!