Procedente

Procedente is a Spanish adjective formed from the verb proceder. It has a mainly twofold use: to indicate origin or provenance and to express that something is admissible, justified, or appropriate in a formal context.

As origin or provenance, procedente means that someone or something comes from a particular place, person, source, or origin. It is commonly used with de to specify the source, as in documentos procedentes de la oficina central (documents originating from the central office) or productos procedentes de España (products from Spain). In this sense, procedente is close in meaning to proveniente, though procedente is often found in more formal or administrative language.

In legal, administrative, and formal writing, procedente also conveys that a claim, request, or action is admissible, warranted, or properly submitted. Phrases such as la demanda es procedente or la solicitud es procedente indican que proceden los trámites o que la solicitud es procedible. The use in this sense contrasts with expresiones like no procedente, which signals that something is not admissible or not justified.

Etymology traces procedente to Latin procedere, meaning to go forward or advance. The term agrees in gender and number with the noun it modifies (procedente, procedentes; feminine and masculine forms are the same in singular).

See also: proveniente, procedencia, proceder, proveniencia.