Language Of Confusion: -Ceed, Part III

The final part looking at the words that come from Proto Indo European ked-, to go or yield. Will they be weird or disappointingly boring? Let’s find out.
 
First, the last actually has -cede in it: precede. It showed up in the early fifteenth century, coming from the Old French preceder and classical Latin praecedere, to go ahead/before. Prae is literally Latin for before, and cedere means to go or to yield and is what comes from ked-. So to precede is to go before.
 
Next we’re going back to the -cease/-cess words. Decease showed up in the early fourteenth century, coming from the classical Latin decessus, departure. Basically, it was their soft way of saying someone was dead. It’s from the verb decedere, to depart, with the de- meaning away, making this word “to go away”. Or to die if there are little kids around and you don’t want to freak them out. Interestingly—well, kind of—predecessor has retained the more literal meaning of the word. It showed up in the late fourteenth century meaning what we know it as, the person who precedes you. It comes from the Old French predecesseor and Late Latin praedecessorem, a mix of prae-, which you know means before, and decedere. A predecessor goes away before you.
 
Ancestor showed up in the fourteenth century from the Old French ancestre/ancessor. Before that, it was the Late Latin antecessor, a mix of ante (from the Proto Indo European ant-, meaning before) and cedere, to go. An ancestor is someone who goes before you. I can see why they dropped the te, though. “Antecestor” just sounds awkward to say.
 
Next, abscess, which… just ew. It showed up in the early seventeenth century in medicine. It comes from the classical Latin abscessus, which means abscess and comes from the verb abscedere, which means… to retire. Really, it’s a mix of ab-, off or away from, and cedere, so the word is “to go away from”, as in retire. And an abscess is called that because back then people thought “humors” went from the pus in the swelling.
 
Finally, incessant showed up in the mid fifteenth century, coming from the Old French incessant and Late Latin incessantem. The in- means not here, and the rest is from cessare, to cease, which I’m pretty sure I mentioned last week as being the frequentative of cedere. Incessant literally means “not going away”. Seems strangely appropriate to end this post on this note.

 
Sources
Online Etymology Dictionary
Google Translate
Omniglot
University of Texas at Austin Linguistic Research Center
University of Texas at San Antonio’s page on Proto Indo European language
Orbis Latinus