Etymologically
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concede

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Pronunciation

  • UK: /kənˈsiːd/[1]
  • US: /kənˈsid/[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin concēdō (“to withdraw, give way, yield; to grant, allow, agree to”),[2][3][4][5] perhaps partly borrowed from French through French concéder, as most dictionaries allow.[6][7][8][9][10][11][12] The Latin verb is from con-, here probably an intensive prefix, and cēdō (“to go, yield, give way”),[6][13][7] which is also the source of cede; the American Heritage Dictionary and Etymonline trace it to Proto-Indo-European *ked- (“to go, yield”).[13][6] The OED compares Anglo-Norman and Middle French conceder (“to grant a privilege or request”), recorded in Old French from the 13th century but rare before the 16th, and the Romance verbs Spanish conceder, Portuguese conceder and Italian concedere.[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

To acknowledge the truth or fairness of a statement or claim; to grant that something is so: before 1513, in John Irland's Scots Meroure of Wyssdome.[2] The Shorter Oxford and the Oxford Dictionary of English likewise date the word to the late 15th century,[9][12] while Barnhart and Etymonline date it to 1632 and the 1630s respectively.[7][6]

Semantic evolution

The word followed the two main Latin senses, admitting a point and giving something up.[2][6] The intransitive sense, to make a concession or to give in, is recorded from 1626,[2][8] and the transitive "to grant or surrender something claimed by another" from 1632.[2][7] Johnson (1755) defined it as to yield, to admit, to grant, to let pass undisputed.[14] In American politics, from 1824, a candidate or party conceded an election when admitting that it was lost;[2][6] in sport, from 1887 and first in football, a team concedes a corner or a goal to the other side,[2] while from 1925 it may concede a lead or advantage.[2] From 1805 the verb is also used with a complement, to acknowledge someone or something to be the thing named.[2]

Timeline

  • before 1513 – to acknowledge something as true, to grant a point.[2]
  • 1626 – intransitive, to make a concession, to give in.[2][8]
  • 1632 – to grant or surrender something requested or claimed.[2][7]
  • 1824 – originally in the United States, to admit the loss of an election.[2][6]
  • 1887 – sport, to allow the opposing team a corner or a goal.[2]
  • 1925 – to let a lead or advantage slip.[2]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To admit or acknowledge, often reluctantly, that something is true or right: She conceded that the plan had its weak points.[15][8][2]
  2. To give up or grant something such as a right or a territory: The landlord conceded a lower rent.[15][8][2]
  3. To admit defeat in an election or contest before the result is official: He conceded the race late on election night.[15][8][2]
  4. (sport) To allow the other side to score a goal or gain a point or a corner.[2]
  5. To make a concession; to give in.[8][2]

Word family

  • concededly
  • conceder
  • unconceded
  • unconceding

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  4. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  6. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  7. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  8. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  9. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  10. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  11. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  12. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  13. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  14. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  15. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins