Note 110 – Is ‘supersede’ spelt correctly?

A work colleague asked me how to spell this word yesterday and I replied quite confidently that it was ‘supercede’ but then (feeling a blog coming on) I decided to look it up to confirm. I was amazed with what I found. I then asked the next seven people that I spoke to (and they are all intelligent people that I work with – I hope they read this!) and they all said ‘s-u-p-e-r-c-e-d-e’. The correct spelling is actually ‘supersede’.

Did you know that supersede is a commonly misspelt word? According to the Oxford English Dictionary online http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/supersede it means ‘take the place of’. Here are some interesting facts that the online dictionary mentions:

• It originates “from Latin supersedere ‘be superior to’, from super – ‘above’ + sedere ‘sit'”.
• The incorrect spelling is influenced by other words ending in cede, such as ‘intercede’.
• It has been noted as being spelt incorrectly as far back as the 16th century.
• Most dictionaries add a note mentioning that it is commonly misspelt.

An example of supersede in a sentence is as follows:

Sally’s job was to supersede Mandy’s
(Sally’s job was to take the place of Mandy’s)

My thoughts: This is going to take quite a bit of getting used to – even when typing this blog, I wrote the incorrect spelling a few times. I might just have to use the word more often for practice.

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Until tomorrow…

Sandra

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Reference list:

Oxford English Dictionary online http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/supersede