suceder

Forms

suceder (first-person singular present sucedo, first-person singular preterite sucedi, past participle sucedido)^[1] The 14th century writes soceder and subceder (socederõ); the 15th has soçeder, soseder and suçeder, and 1561 sobceder.^[2][3] From the 17th century to the 20th the spelling was succeder, with soceder as an older variant: Pereira (1697) refers succeder to soceder, Bluteau (1712–1728) and Morais (1789) the other way round.^[4][5][6]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin succēdō (“to go under; to come after, take the place of; to turn out”), first recorded in the 14th century.^[2][3][1] Nascentes notes that it came in by the learned route.^[7] The Latin verb is formed from sub- (“under”) and cēdō (“to go; to give way”).^[2][8][1]

The old forms Old Galician-Portuguese soceder and Old Galician-Portuguese subceder and the sobceder of 1561 show how the first syllable varied.^[2][3] The same Latin verb was borrowed as Galician suceder, Spanish suceder, French succéder and Italian succedere.^[1] The Spanish verb is recorded from 1444,^[9] and the French one from 1258, as subceder.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss's oldest form is the 14th-century socederõ “they happened, followed”, and Cunha gives soceder and subceder for the same century.^[2][3] Houaiss puts the sense “to happen, take place” first.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Cardoso (1569) glosses soceder with Latin succedo.^[11] Bluteau (1712–1728) gives succeder first as “to happen”, with examples of things that befall by chance.^[12] Morais (1789) orders the senses as “to come after in order or time”, as night follows day, “to happen”, “to follow”, and “to take the place of another”, as one king succeeds another, with succeder na herança “to inherit”.^[13] In Francisco de Moraes's Palmeirim de Inglaterra the adventures that soccederam to the knights are the things that befell them.^[14]

The sense “to turn out well, be of use” (o negócio não lhe sucedeu bem) continues the Latin “to have an outcome”.^[2][8] In Brazil suceder is common in the countryside for “to happen”, where acontecer is rare.^[15] The verb passed into Nheengatu as yususederi.^[1]

Timeline

• 14th century – socederõ;^[2][3] soceder and subceder.^[2][3]
• 15th century – soçeder, soseder, suçeder.^[2]
• 1561 – the spelling sobceder.^[2]
• 1569 – Cardoso lists soceder.^[11]
• 1697 – Pereira refers succeder to soceder.^[4]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau heads the word succeder.^[12]
• 1789 – Morais gives the senses “to follow”, “to happen” and “to take the place of”.^[13]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive) To happen, take place, occur (ocorrer).^[2][16][1]
2. To come after, follow in time or order;^[2][17] (reflexive) to follow one another.^[2][17]
3. To succeed someone in an office or on the throne; to take the place of.^[2][18][1]
4. To be called to an inheritance (herança) by law or will: suceder na herança.^[2][17]
5. To have a good result, to be of use.^[2][19]

Word family

• sucedido
• sucedimento

Related words

• sucessivo
• sucessor
• sucessão
• sucesso
• ceder
• Latin succēdō
• Spanish suceder

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. suceder
3. ^ a b c d e f Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. suceder
4. ^ a b Pereira, Bento (1697), Thesouro da lingoa portuguesa, in the 1697 edition of his Prosodia (1st ed. 1647; CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. succeder
5. ^ Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. soceder
6. ^ Silva, António de Morais (1789), Diccionario da lingua portugueza composto pelo padre D. Rafael Bluteau, reformado, e accrescentado, 2 vols., Lisboa: Simão Thaddeo Ferreira, p. 2, 411
7. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. suceder
8. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. succēdō
9. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. suceder
10. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. succéder
11. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. soceder
12. ^ a b Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. succeder
13. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1789), Diccionario da lingua portugueza composto pelo padre D. Rafael Bluteau, reformado, e accrescentado, 2 vols., Lisboa: Simão Thaddeo Ferreira, p. 2, 427
14. ^ Vieira, Frei Domingos (1871–1874), Grande Diccionario Portuguez ou Thesouro da lingua portugueza, 5 vols., Porto: Ernesto Chardron e Bartholomeu H. de Moraes, p. 5, 558
15. ^ Instituto da Lingua Galega, Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués (TLPGP), Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/tesouro, p. s.v. suceder
16. ^ Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. suceder
17. ^ a b c Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 8693
18. ^ Academia das Ciências de Lisboa, Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, revised online edition (2023–) of the Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa Contemporânea (2001), https://dicionario.acad-ciencias.pt, p. s.v. suceder
19. ^ Michaelis: Moderno Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, São Paulo: Melhoramentos (online as Michaelis Dicionário Brasileiro da Língua Portuguesa, https://michaelis.uol.com.br), p. s.v. suceder