accede

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English accēden,^[2] which the OED takes as partly borrowed from Anglo-Norman acceder (“to approach; to agree”) and Middle French acceder, and partly borrowed from Latin accēdō (“to go or come to, draw near; to join; to agree; to be added”).^[3] Most other dictionaries give the Latin source alone.^{[2][4][5][6][7][8]} The Latin verb is formed from ad- (“to”), assimilated to ac- before c,^[5][7] and cēdō (“to go, yield”),^[9][4][6] from Proto-Indo-European *ked- (“to go, yield”).^[7][4] The Anglo-Norman verb is recorded from 1281 with the sense "to assent to, agree with".^[10] The OED notes that the sense "to agree" appears in Anglo-Norman long before continental French, where accéder is first used of agreeing to a treaty in 1731 and of agreeing in general in 1790; compare accedere, recorded before 1250.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

To come near a place: 1465, in a letter from Coldingham, I dar noght..accede unto thair habitacions.^[2][3] Barnhart dates the word to probably before 1425, from the translation of Higden's Polychronicon, where it means to become adapted to something; the manuscript of that translation is dated before 1475 by the OED and the MED.^[5][3][2]

Semantic evolution

The physical sense "to come forward, approach" was the Latin one and lasted in English until about 1827;^[3] Merriam-Webster now labels it archaic.^[6] Latin had already developed the senses "to join", "to agree" and "to be added", and post-classical Latin in Britain the sense "to attain a dignity", so the later English senses follow its range.^[3] Agreement, with to, is recorded from 1534, in Whittington's translation of Cicero,^[3] and the sense of coming to an office or throne from 1737.^[3] Johnson (1755) defined the word as "to be added, to come to" and said that it was generally used in political accounts, of a power that becomes a party to a treaty.^[11] The sense of joining something, which the OED records from before 1475, is now rare in general use,^[3] but survives in international law for becoming a party to a treaty.^[12][4] Merriam-Webster also records its use of a people or territory joining a country in political union.^[6]

Timeline

• 1465 – to come near a place (now obsolete).^[2][3]
• before 1475 – to become adapted to something; to join.^[2][3]
• 1534 – to assent or agree, usually with to.^[3]
• 1737 – to come to an office or dignity, especially a throne.^[3]
• 1818 – transitive, to grant or hand over an office or power, in Coleridge.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. To assent or give one's consent, often under pressure from another: The board acceded to the workers' demand.^[4][12][8]
2. To come into an office or dignity, especially a throne: The young queen acceded to the throne.^[4][12][8]
3. To become a party to an agreement or treaty; to become a member of an organization.^[4][12][8]
4. Of a people or territory, to join a country in political union.^[6]
5. (archaic) To come forward; to approach.^[6][3][13]

Word family

• accedence
• acceder
• nonacceding
• reaccede

Related words

• accession
• access
• cede
• concede
• intercede
• precede
• proceed
• succeed
• antecede

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b c d Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
11. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
12. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
13. ^ The Chambers Dictionary (2014), 13th ed., Edinburgh: Chambers