Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913
Occupancy
Oc′cu·pan·cy (ŏk′kū·pan·sy̆), n. [See Occupant.] The act of taking or holding possession; possession; occupation.
Title by occupancy (Law), a right of property acquired by taking the first possession of a thing, or possession of a thing which belonged to nobody, and appropriating it. Blackstone. Kent.