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I've seen the word succonded used on several websites, but can't find a definition anywhere. I believe it may have to do with "being assigned to". Can anybody point me to a dictionary definition – nothing seems to surface!

Examples phrases off Google search:

  • The war came along, Marconi was succonded to the effort, and my granddaddy went to work

  • Dr. Dominic Otieno the DSWT veterinary officer succonded by KWS treating the Zebra

  • Try and find people in your business who can be succonded to your project

  • Senoir lawyers will be succonded to serve night courts

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  • Are we closing questions that ask after words that are not in the dictionary as well? I think the OP shows sufficient reason to assume 'succonded' is perhaps an obscure word, and asks for proof, which seems like a reasonable request.
    – Joachim
    Commented Feb 16 at 23:15

2 Answers 2

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It's a mis-spelling; per Wiktionary, it should be seconded:

to second

  1. (transitive, UK) Transfer temporarily to alternative employment.
  2. (transitive) To assist.

See also: secondment:

secondment

  1. the process or state of being seconded, the temporary transfer of a person from their normal duty to another assignment
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(This would be a comment to Steve’s answer, but I don’t have the reputation to comment yet.)

It’s worth noting that in this usage, second is often (usually? always?) pronounced with the stress on the second syllable and with the first syllable reduced almost to a schwa. I guess the big difference from the usual pronunciation is why this (otherwise rather bizarre) misspelling seems to be quite common.

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  • I've only ever heard it with stress on the first syllable; Wiktionary lists only that pronunciation except in a UK-specific sense I have never heard.
    – Mechanical snail
    Commented Sep 17, 2012 at 7:57
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    @Mechanicalsnail: quite agreed; but that obscure and mostly UK-specific sense is the sense this question was asking about.
    – PLL
    Commented Sep 17, 2012 at 14:46
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    @Mechanicalsnail Wiktionary is wrong (what a shock! :) ) if it claims that that meaning and pronunciation is specific to the UK. It is very common in the U.S. federal government. (E.g., an FAA employee is "seconded" to the Air Force.) People would probably look at you strangely if you stressed the first syllable.
    – MarcInManhattan
    Commented Jun 23, 2022 at 1:14
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    Cambridge dictionaries have the verb /sɪˈkɒnd/ "to send an employee to work somewhere else temporarily", as well as the verb /ˈsek.ənd/ (not sure about that first vowel) "to make a formal statement of support for a suggestion made by someone else". The first is marked UK, although both UK and US pronunciations are given.
    – Stuart F
    Commented Feb 9 at 10:17

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