suceder

Forms

suceder (first-person singular present sucedo, first-person singular preterite sucedí, past participle sucedido)^[1] Old forms include succeder, subceder and soceder.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin succēdō (“to come after, take the place of”), a learned word.^[5][6][7][1] VOX dates the borrowing to the 15th century.^[8] The Latin verb is formed from sub- (“under; close after”) and cēdō (“to go; to withdraw”), the source of ceder.^[6][9][10]

In Latin it meant “to go under, climb up, come near”, “to take the place of” and “to turn out”;^[11] Spanish developed from these the sense “to happen”.^[11] The same Latin verb gave French succéder, Italian succedere, Catalan succeir and Portuguese suceder.^[12][13][14]

De Vaan lists it among the prefixed forms of that verb.^[15] The origin of the simple verb is disputed: the OLD takes it as ce- with the root of ὁδός (hodós, “road”), and Wiktionary also mentions a link with सेधति (sedhati, “drives away”).^[16][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The BDELC dates the word to 1444.^[6] The CDH has earlier hits: in the Castigos of 1293 (Biblioteca Nacional ms. 6559) the man who subçedio enel obispado “succeeded to the bishopric”, and in the Sumas de la historia troyana (c. 1350), suçedio enel rreyno “succeeded to the kingdom”.^[3] An earlier hit in the Crónica de Sahagún (c. 1255) has the same sense, but its Spanish text survives only in later copies.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The first sense was “to take someone's place in an office or kingdom”; by the 14th century the verb is also used of events that came about later, las cosas que despues suçedieron.^[3] Covarrubias (1611) has the senses “to happen” and “to take another's place” in separate articles,^[17] and the Diccionario de Autoridades adds “to inherit” and calls the verb impersonal in the sense “to happen unexpectedly”.^[18] Cervantes uses it for “to turn out well or badly”, nos suceda bien.^[19] Baralt defended this use against purists, citing Mariana.^[20]

The Academy marked “to descend, come from” as old in 1817, and it is now obsolete.^[21][7] The sense “to be successful”, from Latin, was lost and taken over by tener éxito,^[1] but in the United States suceder is used again for “to succeed, do well”, under the influence of English succeed.^[22][1]

Timeline

• c. 1255 – suçedio in the Crónica de Sahagún, known from later copies.^[3]
• 1293 – subçedio enel obispado in the Castigos.^[3]
• c. 1350 – suçedio enel rreyno in the Sumas de la historia troyana.^[3]
• 1444 – the first record for the BDELC.^[6]
• 1495 – Nebrija gives suceder a otro que precede for Latin succedo.^[23]
• 1528 – the first record from the Americas, in Santa Marta.^[4]
• 1611 – Covarrubias records the senses “to happen” and “to take another's place”.^[17]
• 1739 – the Diccionario de Autoridades calls “to happen” impersonal.^[18]
• 1899 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology “Del lat. succedere”.^[24]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive, also intransitive) To follow someone or something in time or space: La calma sucede a la tormenta.^[7][1]
2. (transitive, also intransitive) To take someone's place in a post or function; to succeed: Su hija lo sucedió en la empresa.^[7][1]
3. (transitive, also intransitive) To receive someone's property or titles by law; to inherit.^[7]
4. (intransitive, third person) To happen, occur: ¿Qué ha sucedido en la plaza?^[7][1][25]
5. (obsolete) To descend or come from.^[7][21]
6. (United States) To succeed, do well.^[22][1]

Word family

• sucedido
• sucediente

Related words

• suceso
• ceder
• sucesión
• sucesor
• sucesivo
• sucedáneo
• acaecer
• Latin succēdō

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. suceder
3. ^ 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. suceder
4. ^ 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. soceder
5. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 12
6. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. suceder
7. ^ a b c d e f g 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. suceder
8. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. suceder
9. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 660
10. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. succēdō
11. ^ a b Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. suceder
12. ^ Echegaray, Eduardo de (1887–1889), Diccionario general etimológico de la lengua española, 5 vols., Madrid: José María Faquineto, p. 398
13. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. succéder
14. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. 3171
15. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. cēdō
16. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. cēdō
17. ^ 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. 1310
18. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 6, 173
19. ^ Cejador y Frauca, Julio (1905–1906), La lengua de Cervantes: gramática y diccionario de la lengua castellana en El ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha, 2 vols., Madrid: Jaime Ratés, p. 1052
20. ^ Baralt, Rafael María (1855), Diccionario de galicismos, Madrid: Imprenta de J. Cruzado, p. 667
21. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 817
22. ^ a b Moreno-Fernández, Francisco (2018), Diccionario de anglicismos del español estadounidense (Informes del Observatorio 037-01/2018SP), Cambridge, Mass.: Instituto Cervantes at Harvard University, p. 87
23. ^ 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. suceder
24. ^ Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 932
25. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. suceder