Other forms: ceded, ceding, cedes
To cede is to give up territory or a right to another. Cede land, ceded to France, cede control.
It is a formal and usually legal word, and what is ceded goes by agreement rather than by conquest — a treaty cedes, a war takes. Note the Latin cedere, to yield, which is behind concede, recede and secede as well.
1verbcedeTo give up territory or a right to another.
“After losing the war, the country was forced to cede part of its territory.”
cede is a giving up.
Latin cedere means to yield or go away. Concede, recede and secede come from the same verb.
Proto-Indo-European
*ḱyesdʰ- — to drive away; to go away
Latin
cēdō — to yield
Old French
ceder
Middle French
ceder
English, today
cede
Borrowed from Middle French ceder, from Old French ceder, from Latin cēdō (“to yield”), from Proto-Indo-European ḱyesdʰ- (“to drive away; to go away”). Cognate with txb kätk- (“to cross, pass”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA