This Cantankerous Scot Rebels Again
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are a lot of claims that supercede is incorrect, whereas the Oxford English Dictionary (unless this information is out of date) claims that supercede is valid and disputed rather than incorrect.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.


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. :-)
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.
"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.
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!
I intend to stick with Supercede!
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.