This Cantankerous Scot Rebels Again

Dec 3, 2006 at 13:24 o\clock

This Cantankerous Scot Rebels Again

by: Diddums Category: Technology, Software and Editing Keywords: spellings, English, dictionary

Mood: Snorting
Listening to: Nothing

This blog is in the process of moving to WordPress. This post can be found there.

I have been looking on-line at the spellings supersede and supercede. There are a lot of claims that supercede is incorrect, whereas the Oxford English Dictionary (unless this information is out of date) claims that supercede is valid and disputed rather than incorrect.

'Disputed' it could well be, because so many spell it that way - and not without reason.

A comment on this site says that the Scots used superceid.

I do have a preference for supercede - but that's probably because I'm a cantankerous Scot who was brought up to spell it that way.

Just as I dialled up to check a few sites on the subject, thinking 'dictionaries, dictionaries' to myself, my eye was caught by my daily horoscope. It said:

The dictionary may define an obstacle as 'a person or thing that obstructs progress,' but today any obstacles you face will have quite the opposite effect. When someone tells you 'no' today, all you'll hear is a challenge to change this person's mind. You are up to the task, and you're eager to make all obstacles disappear.

Good. It's supercede. Diddums has spoken.

19 Comments | Permalink

Comments for this entry:

quoteBunnyman wrote at Dec 3, 2006 at 18:51 o\clock:My two volume "New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary" lists both forms but words the distinction as follows:

supersede Also (earlier) -cede. L15.

The L15 refers to use of supercede beginning around the late fifteenth century. It doesn't say anything about supersede being wrong.
Perhaps it is just a Scottish quirk but I've always used the -cede spelling. Supersede sounds more like some kind of humungous, prize winning vegetable.

Quite a strange place that Everything2.com, I've added it to my list of Very Odd Encyclopaedias. It doesn't yet have an entry for "Diddums" though it does suggest that "Bunnyman" might be an unsavoury character, quite mad and having some anti-social habits. Seems there's even a bridge named after me.
Well at least it has some good "vegan pizza" recipes. :-)
quoteButtercup2 wrote at Dec 3, 2006 at 22:59 o\clock:I agree.. Supercede it is! I'm glad others spend time on things like this also~
quoteMrs. Chili wrote at Dec 3, 2006 at 23:36 o\clock:Oh, I'm FOREVER doing stuff like this!

I imagine, given the flexibility of English (and the often mind-boggling lack of logical development it follows), that any previously used spellings could be considered "correct." I'm a New Englander, born and raised, yet I spell things like 'cheque' and 'behaviour.' I have no excuse for it, but I don't make excuses for it, either. If I'm getting my point across, it doesn't really matter whether I use archaic or "British" spelling.
quoteBunnyman wrote at Dec 3, 2006 at 23:47 o\clock:Oh dear! I've just spotted a silly boo-boo in my previous comment, above. It should read:

"The L15 refers to use of supercede beginning around the late fifteenth century. It doesn't say anything about *supercede* being wrong."

Oops, looks like I'm buying myself that new spelling DVD for Christmas.
quotePete wrote at Dec 4, 2006 at 09:29 o\clock:for what it's worth I spell it supercede
quoteDiddums wrote at Dec 4, 2006 at 14:16 o\clock:Yay, that's six of us for supercede with a 'c' - including Mum. I thought I might meet with some resistance, but so far there are no obstacles. :-).

PS Bunnyman, I didn't think to explore the rest of everything2.com - I'll have to have a look, especially if it has recipes!
quoteKatieK wrote at Dec 4, 2006 at 19:48 o\clock:West Coast American here. I always spell it -cede...I do have 1/8 Scottish ancestry (their last name was Aird).
quoteDiddums wrote at Dec 5, 2006 at 02:16 o\clock:Even better - the count has risen to 7!
quoteFeral wrote at Dec 16, 2007 at 19:48 o\clock:It just came up on a spelling question on a family quiz show. 3 of us in the room all spelt it with a 'c', the answer on the quiz was with an 's'

I intend to stick with Supercede!
quoteDiddums wrote at Dec 16, 2007 at 23:46 o\clock:Sound decision. :-). It's interesting how it wasn't just one that spelt it 's', but three of you. That's 10 in this blog post so far.
quotenot quite past it dad wrote at Dec 21, 2007 at 22:16 o\clock:Just watched "Are you smarter than a 10 year old" and watched in shock as all the kids spelt supercede as supersede and apparently they're right. My learned mrs and me spell it the proper way - supercede and would probably have lamped Noel Edmonds if he said we were wrong. Funnily enough the guy took the cash but thought it was supercede. Funnily enough, he was Scottish as well
quoteDiddums wrote at Dec 22, 2007 at 01:23 o\clock:I'm sorry I missed that show - or then again, maybe not, as I would probably have got vexed! I read a lot of books growing up, and they can't all have been Scottish. I just never had the impression that 'supersede' was correct while 'supercede' wasn't.

There, the comment box spell-checker has just put a red line under 'supercede'.

(Coshes it with giant humungous vegetable).

It doesn't recognize 'coshes' or 'humungous' either.
quoteAndrea wrote at Sep 10, 2008 at 19:40 o\clock:I ended up on this site as I use the word supercede a lot in my notes at work and I'm getting very annoyed with Word telling me it's a 'non-standard' word and trying to correct my spelling (I added it to the Word dictionary now). For your info I'm not Scottish but am from Newcastle - so maybe it's a Northern thing. I must ask my Southern boyfriend how he spells it...
quoteDiddums wrote at Oct 9, 2008 at 19:22 o\clock:Normally if something has the wrong spelling, it's wrong, but I think in this case we're onto something. :-)
quoteAlistair wrote at Dec 3, 2008 at 15:41 o\clock:If you have particular trouble with certain spellings, it seems you might not be as stupid as you thought.

Researchers claim that a number of words are misspelt simply because we're too clever.

For example, the English word most commonly
Many of us wrongly come up with ' supercede' because of our knowledge of other words including intercede or precede. The word itself comes from the Latin super-sedere, meaning to desist.
The same temptation to refer to our experience of other words causes us to come a cropper with consensus, liquefy and sacrilegious.

They are among scores of examples found by researchers for Collins dictionaries, who ran thousands of documents through a software program designed to pick up spelling mistakes.

They included published books and articles, as well as internet blogs, to ensure that they covered a wide range of writing styles and media.

Supersede was by far the most commonly misspelt word, although it was wrong only one time out of ten.
Consensus is frequently spelt incorrectly as concensus because the writer wrongly believes that it relates to the word census which comes from the Latin censere, to assess. Consensus, however, derives from the Latin consentire, to agree.

When it comes to liquefy, many
The same applies to sacrilegious which is often misspelt as sacreligious (as with religious) and inoculate because many know the word innocuous contains a double 'n'.

Ian Brookes, managing editor of dictionaries at Collins, said: 'The real spelling problems occur when people have learnt the rules or have a bit of knowledge, but make mistakes in how they apply this.'

Another common reason for misspelling is where words are spelt differently from their pronunciation or when they come from a foreign language.

Collins is holding a public vote next month to find out which word schoolchildren think has the stupidest spelling.

The Spelling Society has campaigned for the past 100 years for a simplified and phonetic form of spelling. It has backed a campaign launched by lecturer Ken Smith, from Buckinghamshire New University, to compile a list of variant spellings which would include common misspellings including thier, arguement, ignor and speach.

Its chairman, Jack Bovill, said: 'Clearly changes are taking place moving towards a more logical form of spelling. The readiness of people to accept what Ken Smith calls variant spellings will not create a world catastrophe.'

A survey for the Spelling Society in May found half of adults unable to spell words such as embarrassed, liaison or millennium.

English is a living language, therefore changes to spelling of the more difficult words are to be expected.

New words are added each year, we have the Americans to be thanked for their additions, Watergate, mugging, stalking, friendly fire, drive by shooting to name but a few!
quoteRundi wrote at Mar 20, 2009 at 15:51 o\clock:Definitely supercede in my books and I'm a soft Southerner (though not sure what that has to do with anything). One concede's, cede's way (yield / give way, etc.) so why stick an "s" where it ought not to be.
quoteTIM wrote at Apr 1, 2009 at 10:56 o\clock:I was just asked in a multiple choice quiz what was the correct spelling and two of the four options were supercede and supersede. I have always used supercede and was shocked that this was not (in the quizmaster's view) correct and they plumped for the "s" version. I have always used the "c" version and will continue, the "s" sounds American.
quoteGraeme wrote at Apr 15, 2009 at 17:21 o\clock:I was writing a report today and had noted in it that a previous note was "superceded" by my current report when Spellcheck arrested me, saying the correct spelling is "supersede". I have used my spelling for years to write across engineering drawings to cancel a previous version when a revision is issued. Being educated in Ireland I was exposed to this spelling only, and there have been many great literary figures in the English language from that little island They also use a "c" rather than a "s" to spell "licence" and "defence" as do most people here in Canada. So I'll stick with a "c" rather than a "s".
quoteMalcolm wrote at May 18, 2009 at 15:57 o\clock:I personally prefer supercede (place above), as when we supercede one spare part with another when we find the original part's mean time between failures is too low. It relates to the other related terms precede (place before, related to precession), procede (go to the next place (in a series) related to procession), succeed ((reach the) first place (win) related to succession), intercede (place between).

Comment this entry

Attention: guestbook entries on this weblog have to be approved by the weblog\s owner.

Aw Diddums

Dec 3, 2006 at 13:24 o\clock