predecessor

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English predecessour,^[2][3] borrowed from Anglo-Norman predecessur and Old French predecesseur,^[4][5] and partly taken directly from Late Latin praedēcessor (“one who has gone before”),^[4][5][2] formed from Latin prae- (“before”) + dēcessor (“retiring official”).^[2][6][7] A dēcessor was a governor leaving his province;^[3] the noun is from dēcēdō (“to go away, depart; to die”),^[2][8] itself from dē- (“away”) and cēdō (“to go”).^[9][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

A person who comes before another in time; an ancestor: a1325, in the Statutes of the Realm.^[4] Etymonline dates it to the late 14th century, in the sense of a former holder of an office,^[2] and Barnhart notes both the forms predecessoure and predecessor in Trevisa's translation of Higden's Polychronicon (before 1387).^[8]

Semantic evolution

The sense of a former holder of an office, a title or a position, regarded in relation to a later holder, is recorded from before 1387 and became the usual one.^[4][8] Two medieval senses, a leader or guide (about 1425 to 1656) and someone who takes precedence over others (about 1450), died out.^[4] From 1665 the word could refer to a thing that has been replaced by another,^[4] and in mathematics, from 1844, to the term that comes before another in a series.^[4] As Ayto notes, the word is etymologically a cousin of decease, but it never took on that word's connotation of dying.^[10] Weekley adds that it was often used as if it were precessor or antecessor, simply "one who goes before".^[11]

Timeline

• a1325 – an ancestor or forebear.^[4]
• before 1387 – a former holder of an office.^[4][8]
• c. 1425 – a leader or guide (obsolete by 1656).^[4]
• 1665 – a thing replaced by another.^[4]
• 1755 – Johnson: one that was in any state or place before another.^[12]
• 1844 – in mathematics, a preceding term.^[4]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A person who held a job or office before the present holder.
2. Something that came before another thing and was followed or replaced by it.
3. An ancestor or forefather.
4. (mathematics) The term immediately before another in a sequence.

Related words

• decease
• successive
• successor
• cede
• precede
• ancestor

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
6. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
9. ^ The Chambers Dictionary (2014), 13th ed., Edinburgh: Chambers
10. ^ Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
11. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
12. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.