supercede

English

Etymology

From Middle English superceden, from Middle French superceder, from Latin supersedēre: super- (“over-”) + sedēre (“to sit”).

Verb

supercede (third-person singular simple present supercedes, present participle superceding, simple past and past participle superceded)

1. Common misspelling of supersede.
   • 1857, The American Law Register - On the Doctrine of Uses as an Element of our Law of Conveyances, Vol. 6, № 2/3:

     To it a new species of conveyancing owes its origin, which dispenses with livery of seisin, and almost entirely supercedes, in practice, the employment of common law deeds.

   • 2000, Juliet Floyd, Hilary Putnam, The Journal of Philosophy - A Note on Wittgenstein’s “Notorious Paragraph” about the Godel Theorem, Vol. 97, № 11:

     They saw themselves as providing a freestanding “ideal language” or “concept-language,” what W. V. Quine has called a first-grade conceptual scheme, which in some sense supercedes ordinary language.

   • 2002, Amy Kapczynski, The Yale Law Journal - Queer Brinksmanship: Citizenship and the Solomon Wars, Vol. 112, № 3:

     The DoD may contend that the consolidated Solomon Amendment, passed in 1999, National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2000 § 549, supercedes the regulations.

Usage notes

• The form supercede is commonly considered a misspelling of supersede, since it results from confusion between Latin cēdere (“to give up, yield”) and sedēre (“to sit”). The original Latin word was supersedēre (“to sit above”), which continued in Italian as soprassedere, but the c spelling began to be used in Middle French, appeared in English as early as the 1400s, and is still sometimes found. The fact that supersede is the only English word ending in -sede, while several end in -cede, also encourages confusion.
• Most dictionaries do not include this spelling; a few list it as a variant, sometimes identified as a misspelling.

Middle English

Etymology

From Middle French superceder, from Latin supersedere: super- (“over-”) + sedere (“to sit”).

Verb

supercede

1. supersede
   • 1491, Acta Dom. Conc.:

     He sall supercede þe payment of þe said v^c frankis.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)