céder

Céder is a French verb meaning to yield, to give up, to surrender, or to transfer rights or property. It can refer to giving way in a physical sense, yielding to pressure or temptation, or legally transferring ownership or rights, as in céder des droits ou un contrat. In everyday language, céder is used in expressions such as céder le passage (to yield the way), céder à la tentation (to yield to temptation), or céder sous la pression (to give in under pressure). The corresponding noun is cession, the act or result of transferring rights; the person who transfers is the cédant, while the recipient is the cessionnaire.

Etymology: céder comes from Latin cedo, cēdere, meaning to go, to yield. In French it acquired the acute accent on the first e and formed a regular -er verb with the stem ced-.

Conjugation: céder is a regular -er verb with the notable feature that the present tense forms have accents to preserve a soft pronunciation: je cède, tu cèdes, il cède, nous cédons, vous cédez, ils cèdent. It forms the imperfect: je cédais, tu cédais, il cédait, nous cédions, vous cédiez, ils cédaient; the past historic: je cédai, tu cédas, il céda, nous cédâmes, vous céda- tes, ils cédèrent; the future: je céderai, tu céderas, il cédera, nous céderons, vous céderez, ils céderont. The past participle is cédé, used with avoir: j’ai cédé. The gerund is cédant.

Usage notes: céder à quelqu’un ou à quelque chose gover ns à. In legal language, cession denotes transfer of property or rights under a contract or sale.