# tenere x habere



## Casquilho

Can you tell me the difference of _tenere _and _habere_, and say which is more correct to express the idea of having or holding a title, like "He holds the title of Baron" or "He has a chair in the university"?


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## Scholiast

salve Casquilho

For "holding a professorship" I think _tenere_ is right (compare the - chiefly US - English usage of "tenure" in academic contexts).

An aristocratic title would, I think, usually be expressed in terms of rank, usually with an adjective, e.g. _vir praetorius_.


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## Outsider

With regard to the first part of your question, I believe usually Latin "habere" corresponds to "to have", whereas "tenere" corresponds to "to hold" (with your hands, or perhaps figuratively).


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## Scholiast

Outsider is of course generally right here (#3). But there is no question but that the words are used in at least overlapping senses, especially in poetry, and in both literal and figurative senses (which cannot in any case be strictly distinguished). Both can mean, in the literal sense, "to have in one's hands", but as in (good) idiomatic English one may "hold" an opinion (using in Latin _habere_): _eum amicum habeo_ means "I regard him as / consider him [to be] a friend". In the marriage-rite of the Anglican _Book of Common Prayer_ of 1662, the phrase "to have and to hold" appears almost as a hendiadys, not in the sense of "possession" (though when it was written, women were legally considered to be men's chattels) - because both participants are required to use these words; and one thing is for sure, they both are distinct from _possideo_ (= _pot- + __sedeo_), which says (literally) "I am sitting on this and in power over it") - [so if you want to take it from me, get lost]".


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## Casquilho

So, _cathedram tenere _would be right?


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## Quiviscumque

Google books offers some medieval and modern examples. Ildefonsus (s. VII) wrote: "Isidorus post Leandrum fratrem Hispalensis sedis propriae Baeticae cathedram tenuit" (i. e., the bishopric of Seville)


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## Xaq

habere refers to ownership (of an item or an idea), tenere refers to something that you have at the time of the action of the verb, but may not have in the future. so, tenere is right for a position or office.


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## XiaoRoel

Haveria que termos ainda em conta ainda o verbo _*possideo*_. 
Eu vejo nos três verbos, na época clássica, estas diferenças. Os três significam '_possuir, ter_', mas não com o mesmo grau de amplitude semântica. Assim, em tanto *possideo* aponta para o direito de propriedade do possuidor (na língua do direito especializa-se para designar a simples retenção da _*res*_ em quanto fosse legítima), *habeo* é um verbo de significado geral que aponta para a possessão sem mais conotações, sem ideias acessórias. *Teneo*, de onde vem o nosso _ter_, implica a ideia dos meios que se empregam para se manter na possessão duma *res* e vale o mesmo que _*occupatum habere*_. 
Ainda poderíamos falar em *obtineo* que é entrar (ou manter-se) em possessão duma _*res*_ disputada.


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