praedecessor

Forms

praedēcessor m (genitive praedēcessōris); third declension^[1][2]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin prae- (“before”) + dēcessor (“one who goes away; a retiring official”).^[3][4][5]

Manuscripts very often confuse it with prōdēcessor, so that Lietzmann denied that the word existed at all; the TLL answers that it is already attested in a 6th-century Verona manuscript of Facundus.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is post-Classical.^[1] Symmachus and Augustine use it of a predecessor in office:^[1][2][6] Augustine, writing against Gaudentius, calls a bishop's predecessor his praedecessor.^[3][6]

Semantic evolution

The TLL defines it as one who held the same office before, mostly in the Church, but in the Codex and Novels of Justinian also in the state; it may mean the immediate predecessor or any earlier holder.^[3] Leo the Great and later popes use it of earlier bishops.^[3] In papal letters it can come close to an adjective, “preceding”.^[3]

In Medieval Latin it is the usual word for a predecessor.^[7][8] British sources apply it to kings, to officials and to churchmen, and in 1285 also to ancestors, the forefathers for whose souls a grant is made.^[9] The Italian word predecessore comes from Late Latin.^[6]

English took predecessor in the late 14th century from Old French and directly from Late Latin, and used it for “ancestor” from about 1400.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 340–402 AD – Symmachus uses it in his letters.^[1][4]
• 354–430 AD – Augustine uses it of a bishop's predecessor.^[3][4]
• 440–461 AD – Leo the Great writes of a bishop's praedecessor.^[3][4]
• 472 AD – A law in the Codex of Justinian speaks of an official's predecessors.^[3]
• 675 – An Anglo-Saxon charter refers to the kings who were the grantor's predecessors.^[9]
• 1285 – A deed uses it for ancestors.^[9]
• late 14th century – English borrows it as predecessor.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. (Late Latin) A predecessor in an office.^[1][3][2]
2. (Medieval Latin) An ancestor, one who has died before.^[9]

Related words

• dēcessor
• antecessor
• English predecessor

References

1. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
2. ^ a b c Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
7. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
8. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
9. ^ a b c d Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press