Owning

Part of speech: verb

Pronunciation: /ˈəʊnɪŋ/

Definitions

1. Having legal possession or property of an item or asset ; being recognized as the creator, author, or originator of a work or idea
2. Holding ownership rights or control over something ; being the one who produced or invented a particular object or concept
3. Controlling or having possession of belongings or assets ; originating or being responsible for producing something

Etymology: The verb "own" has a surprising start: its ancestor meant "proper" or "peculiar" rather than "possess." In Old English, "āgen" was originally the past participle of "āgan," a verb meaning "to have" or "to possess." Over time the participle drifted into an adjective meaning something belonging to a particular person, as in "my own," and only later did speakers turn "own" back into a verb meaning to possess something. That reversal is a clue to how "owning" came about. The verb was formed as a back-formation from "owner," meaning that speakers built the verb from the noun rather than the other way around. Old English had its own verb for this, "āgnian," which was similar in meaning, but modern "own" is the descendant of the adjective that grew out of that old participle. The word has relatives across the Germanic languages. Its close cousins include Scots "ain," German "eigen," and Dutch "eigen," all meaning "own," showing how far back this family of words stretches.

Synonyms: possessing, having, holding, controlling, claiming

Antonyms: losing, abandoning, relinquishing, forsaking, divesting