preceder

Forms

preceder (first-person singular present precedo, first-person singular preterite precedí, past participle precedido)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin praecēdō (“to go before, precede”).^[2][3][1] Corominas counts it among the learned derivatives of the Latin verb behind ceder, and the Vox dictionary dates the borrowing to the 15th century.^[4][5]

The Latin verb is formed from prae- (“before”) and cēdō (“to go, proceed”).^[6][7] De Vaan traces this verb to Proto-Italic *kesd- (“to go away, avoid”) and Proto-Indo-European *ḱiesdʰ- (“to drive away; go away”).^[8]

The same Latin verb was borrowed as Portuguese preceder, Catalan precedir, French précéder and Italian precedere.^[9][1][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The CDH's earliest hits are Aragonese translations made for Juan Fernández de Heredia (1376–1396): in his Orosius, seven years of plenty “preceded” the famine, los siete anyos que precedieron a la fambre.^[11] From the start the verb meant “to come before” in time as well as in order.^[11][12]

Semantic evolution

The verb stayed learned and rare in the 15th century; the Old Spanish Textual Archive records it from 1462 on, mostly in printed books of the 1480s and 1490s.^[13] Corominas gives Alonso de Palencia (1490) as its first record, and DICCA-XV finds it in 1417.^[4][3][12]

Covarrubias (1611) defined it as going in front of the others, and listed precedencia and precedente as words formed from it.^[14] Autoridades added the sense of ranking before someone, illustrated with a law on which of two accountants should take precedence.^[15] In colonial documents from 1563 on it is common in the absolute construction sin preceder “without first …”, as in sin preceder información “without a prior inquiry”.^[16] Moliner notes that it is construed with a even when the object is a thing.^[17]

Timeline

• after 1350 – preçeder appears in a Spanish translation of Jacques de Vitry's history of Jerusalem.^[11]
• 1376–1396 – Juan Fernández de Heredia's translation of Orosius uses precedieron.^[11]
• 1417 – the first record in DICCA-XV's texts of the Crown of Aragon.^[12]
• 1490 – Alonso de Palencia, the first record for Corominas.^[4][3]
• 1563 – the first record from the Americas, in Yucatán.^[16]
• 1611 – Covarrubias defines it and gives precedencia and precedente.^[14]
• 1737 – Autoridades adds the sense “to rank before”.^[15]

Meanings

Verb

1. To go or come before someone or something in time, order or place; also intransitive: El prólogo precede a los capítulos.^[2][17][1]
2. To stand placed before something.^[2]
3. To have precedence or superiority over another person or thing; to rank above.^[2][17][5]

Related words

• ceder
• precedente
• precedencia
• anteceder
• proceder
• Latin praecēdō

Usage notes

The object takes a even when it is a thing: la fecha precede a la firma.^[17]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. preceder
3. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. ceder
4. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 12
5. ^ a b Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. preceder
6. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. s.v. preceder
7. ^ Segura Munguía, Santiago (2014), Lexicón etimológico y semántico del latín y de las voces actuales que proceden de raíces latinas o griegas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 123
8. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ Echegaray, Eduardo de (1887–1889), Diccionario general etimológico de la lengua española, 5 vols., Madrid: José María Faquineto, p. 917
10. ^ Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. precedir
11. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. preceder
12. ^ a b c Lleal, Coloma (dir.), DICCA-XV: Diccionario del castellano del siglo XV en la Corona de Aragón, Barcelona: Universitat de Barcelona, Grup d'Estudis d'Història de la Llengua (GHCL), https://ghcl.ub.edu/diccaxv, p. s.v. preceder
13. ^ Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (2026), Old Spanish Textual Archive (OSTA): semi-paleographic transcriptions of Old Spanish texts, ed. Francisco Gago Jover et al., https://www.hispanicseminary.org, p. s.v. preceder
14. ^ a b Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1226
15. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 346
16. ^ a b Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. preceder
17. ^ a b c d Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. preceder