proceder

Forms

proceder (first-person singular present procedo, first-person singular preterite procedí, past participle procedido)^[1] Old Aragonese had procedir (1313) and proceir.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin prōcēdō (“to go forward, advance”), a learned word.^[4][5][6][1] The verb is formed from Latin prō- + cēdō (“to go”).^[7][1] From “to go forward” came “to pass on to another thing”, and in legal Latin the sense “to take legal proceedings”; in Church Latin, with a preposition, “to issue from”.^[5][8][9]

cēdō is reconstructed by de Vaan as Proto-Italic *kesd-e/o- (“to go away, avoid”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱiesdh- (“to drive away; go away”), with cognates in Sanskrit and Avestan.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest CDH hits, in the Libro de los doce sabios (c. 1237, in a copy of about 1400) and the Crónica de Sahagún, survive in later copies, and the next is a Latin charter of 1239.^[2] The first safe Romance record is an Aragonese sentence of 1313, enançar ni procedir en la dicha quereylla “to go on or proceed in the said complaint”, already a legal sense.^[2] The DCECH's first record is Juan de Mena's Laberinto, in the sense “to advance”, and the BDELC dates the verb to 1438.^[4][5]

Semantic evolution

In the 14th century the verb meant “to come from, flow from” (a trail of blood que procedía derechamente para la casa, 1344) and “to descend from”.^[2] Nebrija's Vocabulario (c. 1495) glosses it as ir adelante “to go forward”, the Latin sense.^[11] Covarrubias in 1611 explains it as one thing following from another, and in legal language as proceeding against someone by a trial.^[12]

The noun el proceder “conduct, way of behaving” is in the Autoridades, with quotations of the 17th century, and the Academy's dictionary of 1884 calls it the nominalised form of the verb.^[13][14] The DLE lists the noun as a separate headword.^[6] In the Americas the verb is recorded from 1515, of the members proceeding from a head.^[15]

Timeline

• c. 1237 – proçeda in the Libro de los doce sabios (in a later copy).^[2][16]
• 1313 – the Aragonese procedir in a legal sentence.^[2]
• 1344 – proçedia “led, came from” in the Crónica de 1344.^[2]
• 1438 – the first record in the BDELC.^[5]
• 1444 – Juan de Mena, the first record in the DCECH.^[4]
• 1515 – first record from the Americas, in Tierra Firme.^[15]
• 1611 – Covarrubias records the legal phrase proceder contra uno.^[12]
• 1737 – the Autoridades has the noun proceder “conduct”.^[13]

Meanings

Verb

1. To come from, originate or follow from something: Sus dudas proceden de un malentendido.^[6][17]
2. To have its origin in a place, or to descend (descender) from a person, family or thing.^[6][1]
3. To go one after another in a certain order.^[6][17]
4. To come from a place: El tren procede de Sevilla.^[6]
5. To behave or act, well or badly.^[6]
6. To proceed to do something after the preparations: proceder a la votación.^[6][1]
7. To continue with something done in successive steps.^[6]
8. To be right or proper according to reason, law, rule or custom: No procede discutirlo ahora.^[6]
9. (law) To take proceedings against someone.^[6]

Noun

1. conduct, demeanour: the way someone behaves and governs their actions.^[6][1][13]

Word family

• procedente
• procedencia
• procedimiento

Related words

• procesión
• proceso
• ceder
• preceder
• Latin prōcēdō

Usage notes

The phrase proceder en infinito is used of something endless or that would take too long to tell.^[6]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. proceder
3. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. procedere
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 c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. proceder
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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. proceder
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. proceder
9. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
10. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 401
12. ^ 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. 1231
13. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 389
14. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 867
15. ^ 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. proceder
16. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. proceder
17. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. proceder