the word 'supersede' originates from the latin verb 'supersedēre', a compound of 'super' ('above') and 'sedēre' ('to sit'). the literal sense was 'to sit above' or 'to be superior to', which evolved into the legal meaning 'to refrain from acting, to stay'. this meaning was influenced by the similar-sounding scots legal term 'supercede', meaning 'to postpone, defer'. in english, it was reanalyzed to mean 'to set aside, replace', a sense reinforced by its phonetic similarity to the prefix 'super-', implying superiority. the modern meaning of replacing something older or inferior with something newer and better fully emerged in the 17th century.

Structure: super (above) + sede (to sit) super (from latin 'super', meaning 'above, over'); sede (from latin 'sedēre', meaning 'to sit').