intercede

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin intercēdō (“to come between, intervene, interfere, become surety for”),^[2][3][4][5] from inter (“between”) and cēdō (“to go”),^[2][3][5][6] the source of cede,^[6][7] from Proto-Indo-European *ked- (“to go, yield”).^[3][6] In Medieval Latin the verb also meant to interpose on someone's behalf.^[2][6] Hoad, the Shorter Oxford and the Oxford Dictionary of English also allow French intercéder as a source,^[8][9][10] which the OED only compares, dating the French verb to the late 16th century.^[2] Barnhart and Etymonline think it may be partly a back-formation from intercession, recorded from before 1430,^[5][6][11] on the model of the Latin verb.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

To come between, in time, space or action: 1578, in J. Banister's Historie of Man.^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

The physical sense "to come between" lasted until the end of the 18th century: Johnson (1755) still put "to pass between" first, quoting Hale on a long period that "interceded" and Newton on surfaces between media.^[12][2] A learned use in Roman history, of a tribune interposing a veto, follows the Latin from 1591, in Savile's translation of Tacitus.^[2][13] The modern sense, pleading for another, appears in 1606, in Holland's translation of Suetonius,^[2][5] and it continues the Medieval Latin meaning.^[2][6] Merriam-Webster Unabridged dates the sense of acting between parties to 1597.^[4] This is the sense that survives, and Johnson's quotations already show its religious use, of Christ interceding with his Father.^[12] In English dialect the word was still recorded in the 19th century for speaking on someone's behalf (Kent) and, with into, for looking into a matter (Gloucestershire).^[14]

Timeline

• 1578 – to come between, in time, space or action (obsolete by 1799).^[2][5]
• 1591 – in Roman history, of a tribune, to interpose a veto.^[2]
• 1606 – to interpose on behalf of another.^[2][5] Merriam-Webster Unabridged gives 1597 for acting between parties.^[4]
• 1614 – transitive, to lie between (obsolete by 1799).^[2]
• before 1661 – to get in the way, to obstruct (obsolete by 1673).^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To plead on behalf of someone else: The bishop interceded for the condemned men.^[3][4][2]
2. To act between parties in a dispute in order to reconcile them; to mediate: A neighbour interceded in the quarrel over the fence.^[3][4][13]
3. (Roman history) Of a tribune or other magistrate, to interpose a veto.^[13][2][9]
4. (obsolete, 1578–1799) To come or lie between, in time or space.^[2][4][9]
5. (obsolete, 1661–73) To get in the way; to obstruct.^[2][4][9]

Word family

• interceder

Related words

• intercession
• intercessor
• intercessory
• cede

References

1. ^ 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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ 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)
12. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
13. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
14. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)