Preoccupations

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A mental condition involving deep or continuous focus on certain thoughts ; ongoing concerns or topics that take up a person's attention persistently
2. The state of being absorbed or fully engaged in particular ideas or worries ; enduring interests or issues that occupy someone's mind
3. An intense involvement in thoughts that dominate attention ; steady preoccupying matters that are central to one's focus or emotions

Etymology: The most striking thing about "preoccupations" is how literally it once meant what it says: to occupy something beforehand. Its root is the Latin "praeoccupare", built from "prae" (before) and "occupare" (to seize or take possession of), so the original sense was of seizing a place or a position ahead of someone else. That military flavour survives in the older meaning of "preoccupy", to take possession of something before another can. The English noun came by way of Middle French "préoccupation", which carried the same notion of taking up a position first. Over time the sense moved from claiming physical ground to claiming the mind: a thought that arrives first and holds the attention before others can get in. This is why the modern meaning describes being absorbed in a matter, or a lasting concern that keeps returning to fill one's thoughts.

Synonyms: concerns, worries, obsessions, fascinations, interests

Antonyms: indifference, apathy, disinterest, detachment, nonchalance