Possessed vs Had - What's the difference?
possessed | had |
(possess)
by evil spirits.
Seized by powerful emotions.
* 1719 , :
Having; owning.
*1854 , Dickens, Hard Times :
*:'Girl number twenty unable to define a horse!' said Mr Gradgrind, for the general behoof of all the little pitchers. 'Girl number twenty possessed of no facts, in reference to one of the commonest of animals!'
(have)
*1814 , Jane Austen, Mansfield Park :
*:About thirty years ago, Miss Maria Ward of Huntingdon, with only seven thousand pounds, had the good luck to captivate Sir Thomas Bertram, of Mansfield Park, in the county of Northampton.
(auxiliary) Used to form the pluperfect tense, expressing a completed action in the past (+ past participle).
*2011 , Ben Cooper, The Guardian , 15 April:
*:Cooper seems an odd choice, but imagine if they had taken MTV's advice and chosen Robert Pattinson?
As past subjunctive: ‘would have’.
*1499 , (John Skelton), The Bowge of Courte :
*:To holde myne honde, by God, I had grete payne; / For forthwyth there I had him slayne, / But that I drede mordre wolde come oute.
*, II.4:
*:Julius Cæsar had escaped death, if going to the Senate-house, that day wherein he was murthered by the Conspirators, he had read a memorial which was presented unto him.
*1849 , , In Memoriam , 24:
*:If all was good and fair we met, / This earth had been the Paradise / It never look’d to human eyes / Since our first Sun arose and set.
As verbs the difference between possessed and had
is that possessed is (possess) while had is (have).As an adjective possessed
is by evil spirits.possessed
English
(wikipedia possessed)Verb
(head)Adjective
(en adjective)- He was exorcised because he was thought to be possessed by the Devil.
- Oh, what ridiculous resolutions men take when possessed with fear!
- The president was possessed of great wealth.
