intercessor

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English intercessour,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Latin intercessor (“one who intervenes, mediator”),^[5][2][4][6] and Merriam-Webster and the Shorter Oxford add a French source, Middle French intercesseur.^[3][7] The Latin noun is an agent noun from intercēdō (“to come between, intervene”),^[5][4][6] through its past participle intercessus,^[2][3] from inter (“between”) and cēdō (“to go”).^[4] The OED notes that the sense of pleading for someone was not ancient Latin,^[5] and Etymonline ascribes it to a specific Christian use and to medieval Latin;^[4] it was also in Old French entrecessor in the 13th century.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

A person who intercedes on behalf of another, a mediator: 1482, in the Monk of Evesham.^[5] Etymonline dates it to the late 15th century, in the form intercessour,^[4] and Dictionary.com to 1475–85.^[8]

Semantic evolution

Religious writers used it from before 1530 for one who intercedes with God for mankind, in Bonde's Pylgrimage of Perfeccyon.^[5] The Shorter Oxford still singles out intercession by prayer.^[7] A neutral use for a go-between in dealings between two parties lasted from 1554 to 1598 in the OED,^[5] and to the early 17th century in the Shorter Oxford.^[7] Chambers's Cyclopaedia (1728) records a church office, a bishop who administers a diocese while the see is vacant,^[5][3] which the OED labels obsolete but Merriam-Webster and Chambers still list.^[5][3][9]

Timeline

• 1482 – a person who intercedes on behalf of another.^[5]
• before 1530 – one who intercedes with God for mankind.^[5]
• 1554 – a go-between (obsolete by 1598).^[5]
• 1728 – a bishop administering a vacant see.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A person who intercedes on behalf of another; a mediator: The aunt acted as intercessor between the brothers.^[3][2][5][7]
2. (religion) One who pleads with God for others, especially in prayer.^[5][7]
3. A bishop who administers a diocese during a vacancy of the see.^[3][9][5]
4. (obsolete, 1554–1598) An intermediary, a go-between.^[5][7]

Word family

• intercessorial

Related words

• intercede
• intercession
• intercessory
• cede

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
3. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ a b c d e f Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
9. ^ a b The Chambers Dictionary (2014), 13th ed., Edinburgh: Chambers