précède

Précède is a French verb form meaning to precede, to come before in time, order, or importance. It is the third-person singular present indicative form of the verb précéder.

Origin and etymology: Précéder comes from Latin praecedere, formed from prae- “before” and cedere “to go.” The prefix prae- yields many pre- terms in French and other Romance languages.

Usage and sense: The term is used to describe the ordering of events, statements, or items. It can indicate chronological order, priority in a sequence, or logical precedence within an argument. In both narrative and expository writing, one might say: “L’événement A précède l’événement B” or “L’introduction précède le chapitre suivant.”

Conjugation and form: The infinitive is précéder. The present-tense form précède corresponds to “he/she/it precedes.” Other present-tense forms exist (for example, précèdes for you, précédons, précédez, précèdent), with standard French accent rules applied.

Nuance and relation to other terms: Précéder expresses actual ordering in time or sequence and is distinct from notions such as anticiper (to anticipate) or suivre (to follow). It is often used in historical, analytical, or descriptive contexts to establish a precedence relation between elements.

Related terms: précéder is closely related to terms describing order and precedence, such as préface (the foreword that precedes a book) and précurseur (a predecessor or forerunner).