Etymologically
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succedere

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Pronunciation

  • /sutˈt͡ʃɛ.de.re/[1]

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in Machiavelli's non gli successe il disegno “his plan did not succeed”.[3][9][4] An old sense “to pass by inheritance” is obsolete.[5][1]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

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