9 letters · 20 points in Scrabble
verb engage or engross the interest or attention of beforehand or occupy urgently or obsessively
verb occupy or take possession of beforehand or before another or appropriate for use in advance
originFrom pre- + occupy, after Middle French preoccuper, and its source, Latin praeoccupo, praeoccupare. Doublet of preoccupate, now obsolete.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0