succedere

Forms

succedere (first-person singular present succèdo, first-person singular past historic succèssi or (more common in the sense "to succeed (someone in an office)"; not in the sense "to happen") succedétti or (ditto, traditional) succedètti or (more common in the sense "to succeed (someone in an office)"; not in the sense "to happen") succedéi, past participle succèsso or (more common in the sense "to succeed (someone in an office)"; not in the sense "to happen") succedùto, auxiliary èssere)^[1] Old forms include soccedere, soccidere, socedere and subcedere.^[2] In the sense “to happen” the past historic is successi and the past participle successo.^[3][4] In the sense “to succeed someone” succedetti or succedei and succeduto are also used.^[3][5][1]

Etymology

It is a learned word, borrowed from Latin succēdō (“to go under; to follow; to turn out well”), from sub- (“under”) and cēdō (“to go”).^[6][7][8][1] The Latin verb meant literally “to come up from below” and so “to take someone's place”.^[6][9] In Plautus and Terence it means only “to turn out well”.^[10] The same Latin verb gave French succéder and Spanish suceder.^[7]

Latin ⟨cēdō⟩ first meant “to give way, withdraw” and only later “to go”.^[10] De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Italic ⟨*kesd-e/o-⟩ and, following Lubotsky, connects it with Sanskrit सेधति (sedhati, “drives away”) from Proto-Indo-European *ḱiesdʰ- (“to drive away; to go away”).^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first records are in Dante, before 1321: Semiramis che succedette a Nino e fu sua sposa “who succeeded Ninus and was his wife” (Inferno 5), and the sense “to come after” in time or space.^[6][2] GRADIT dates the word before 1313.^[8]

Semantic evolution

The sense “to happen”, now the usual one, is first recorded before 1540 in Francesco Guicciardini, and the reflexive succedersi “to follow one another” in 1812.^[6] An old sense “to turn out well, succeed” survives only in literary Italian, as in Machiavelli's non gli successe il disegno “his plan did not succeed”.^[3][9][4] An old sense “to pass by inheritance” is obsolete.^[5][1]

The noun successo first meant “event” (before 1342), then “outcome” (1504, Machiavelli).^[6] According to Dardi, quoted by DELI, it meant “event” until the mid-17th century and could be qualified as good or bad, and the absolute use “happy outcome, success” spread from historians and diplomats into common Italian in the 18th century.^[6]

Timeline

• Before 1321 – Dante uses succedere for succeeding a ruler.^[6]
• Before 1342 – Successo “event” is first recorded.^[6]
• Before 1348 – Giovanni Villani uses successione.^[6]
• Before 1540 – Guicciardini uses the verb in the sense “to happen”.^[6]
• 1812 – The reflexive succedersi is first recorded.^[6]

Meanings

Verb

1. To happen, occur, take place: Che cosa è successo ieri sera? Also with an indirect object: Mi succede spesso di perdere le chiavi.^[8][9][3]
2. To succeed someone, take their place in an office, title or property (with a): Al vecchio sindaco succedette la vice.^[8][3][4]
3. (chiefly literary) To come after, follow in time or space: alla collina succede la pianura.^[8][3][9]
4. To follow as a consequence of another event.^[8][3]
5. (succedersi) To follow one another: Le settimane si succedevano senza novità.^[5][4][9]
6. (archaic) To turn out well, succeed.^[3][9][5]

Word family

• successo
• successione
• successivo
• successivamente
• successore
• succedaneo
• successorio
• succedersi

Related words

• cedere
• accadere
• Latin succedo

Usage notes

Sono cose che succedono “these things happen” is said to accept or play down an unpleasant event.^[8][5][4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 20, 472
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d e Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
5. ^ a b c d e Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
7. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
8. ^ a b c d e f g De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
9. ^ a b c d e f Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
10. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill