descendant

English

Etymology

From Middle English dessendaunte, borrowed from Middle French, from Latin dēscendēns, present participle of descendere, from dē + scandere (“to climb, ascend”).

Pronunciation

• (UK, US, Canada) IPA^(key): /dɪˈsɛndənt/

  • Audio (Southern California); [dɪˈsɛndɛnt]:

    (file)

• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /dɪˈsendənt/
• Hyphenation: des‧cen‧dant

Adjective

descendant (not comparable)

1. Descending; going down.

   The elevator resumed its descendant trajectory.

   • 1830, Thomas Robson (engraver.), The British herald, or Cabinet of armorial bearings of the nobility & gentry of Great Britain & Ireland, page 14:

     Eagle descendant, or descending. See DESCENDANT, and Pl. 22, fig. 6. Eagle descendant, displayed. See Pl. 22, fig. 7. Eagle displayed, recursant. See DISPLAYED RECURSANT, and Pl. 22, […]

   • 1984, Charles A. Ravenstein, Air Force combat wings: lineage and honors histories 1947-1977, DIANE Publishing, →ISBN, page 259:

     Azure, surmounting a cloud argent, an American eagle descendant, wings endorsed proper, between his beak four lightning streaks, […]

2. Descending from a biological ancestor.

   Power in the kingdom is transferred in a descendant manner.

   • 1892, Arthur Dillon, Gods and Men (page 214)

     Pitiable sportster, / To choose thy prey so humbly, to seduce / A beggar wench who hath not the high pride / Descendant still from kingly ancestors, / To keep her royal place.

3. Proceeding from a figurative ancestor or source.

Usage notes

See descendent § Usage notes.

Alternative forms

• descendent

Antonyms

• ascendant, ascendent, ascending
• (antonym(s) of “heraldry”): montant

Related terms

• descendancy

Translations

descending — see descending

descending from (an ancestor)

• Catalan: descendent (ca)
• Galician: descendente m or f
• Northwestern Ojibwa: ondoode
• Spanish: postremo m, descendiente (es) m

Noun

descendant (plural descendants)

1. One of the progeny of a specified person, at any distance of time or through any number of generations.

   Antonyms: ancestor, progenitor; forefather, foremother

   Hypernym: successor

   Meronyms: issue, line, progeny; family; clan

   The patriarch survived many descendants: five children, a dozen grandchildren, even a great grandchild.

2. (figuratively) A thing that derives directly from a given precursor or source.

   This famous medieval manuscript has many descendants.

3. (biology) A later evolutionary type.

   Dogs evolved as descendants of early wolves.

4. (linguistics) A language that is descended from another.

   English and Scots are the descendants of Old English.

5. (linguistics) A word or form in one language that is descended from a counterpart in an ancestor language.

   Synonyms: reflex, derivative

   Antonym: etymon

   Coordinate term: cognate

   • 1993, Jens Elmegård Rasmussen, “The Slavic i-verbs with an excursus on the Indo-European ē-verbs”, in Bela Brogyanyi, Reiner Lipp, editors, Comparative-Historical Linguistics, John Benjamins Publishing, →ISBN, page 479:

     The direct descendant of this form is the Slavic aorist: Sb.-Cr. nȍsī, dȍnosī.

6. (astrology) The intersection of the western (setting) horizon and the ecliptic, its ecliptical longitude; the astrological sign it corresponds to.

Usage notes

The adjective may be spelled either with ant or ent as the final syllable (see descendent). The noun may be spelled only with ant.

Synonyms

• (offspring): afterbear, offspring, scion, and see Thesaurus:child & relative

Antonyms

• ascendant
• ancestor
• forebear

Derived terms

• Afrodescendant
• descendantless
• direct descendant
• indirect descendant
• nondescendant

 

Translations

one who is the progeny of someone

• Afrikaans: afstammeling
• Albanian: pasardhës (sq) n
• Arabic: سَلِيل m (salīl)
• Armenian: հետնորդ (hy) (hetnord), ժառանգ (hy) (žaṙang), սերունդ (hy) (serund)
• Belarusian: нашча́дак m (naščádak), нашча́дніца f (naščádnica), пато́мак m (patómak)
• Bengali: আওলাদ (bn) (aōlad), ফরজন্দ (bn) (phorjondo)
• Bulgarian: пото́мък (bg) m (potómǎk)
• Catalan: descendent (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 後裔／后裔 (hau⁶ jeoi⁶), 子孫／子孙 (zi² syun¹), 後嗣／后嗣 (hau⁶ zi⁶), 兒孫／儿孙 (ji⁴ syun¹), 後代／后代 (hau⁶ doi⁶)

  Hokkien: 後裔／后裔 (hō͘-è), 囝孫／囝孙 (zh-min-nan) (kiáⁿ-sun), 後嗣／后嗣 (zh-min-nan) (hiō-sū, hiō-sû, hō͘-sû, āu-sû), 裔孫／裔孙 (è-sun), 後代／后代 (zh-min-nan) (āu-tāi, hiō-tāi)

  Mandarin: 後裔／后裔 (zh) (hòuyì), 子孫／子孙 (zh) (zǐsūn), 後嗣／后嗣 (zh) (hòusì), 兒孫／儿孙 (zh) (érsūn), 後代／后代 (zh) (hòudài)

• Czech: potomek (cs) m, potomkyně f
• Danish: efterkommer c, afkom (da) n
• Dutch: afstammeling (nl) m, nakomeling (nl) m, nazaat (nl) m, telg (nl) m
• Esperanto: posteulo (eo), ido (eo)
• Estonian: järglane
• Ewe: dzidzimevi n
• Finnish: jälkeläinen (fi)
• French: descendant (fr) m, descendante (fr) f
• German: Nachkomme (de) m, Nachkommin (de) f, Deszendent m, Deszendentin f, Spross (de) m, Sproß (de) m (old spelling), Sprössling (de) m, Abkomme (de) m, Abkommin f, Abkömmling (de) m, Nachfahr m, Nachfahre (de) m, Nachfahrin (de) f, Nachkömmling m, Nachwuchs (de) m
• Gothic: 𐌰𐍆𐌰𐍂𐌰 m (afara)
• Greek: απόγονος (el) m (apógonos)

  Ancient: ἐπίγονος m (epígonos)

• Hausa: zuriya (ha)
• Hebrew: צֶאֱצָא (he) m (tse'etsa)
• Hindi: वंशज (hi) m (vañśaj)
• Hungarian: leszármazott (hu)
• Icelandic: afkomandi m, niðji (is) m
• Ido: decendanto (io)
• Indonesian: keturunan (id)
• Irish: sliochtach m
• Italian: discendente (it) m
• Japanese: 子孫 (ja) (しそん, shison), 子種 (こだね, kodane), 後裔 (ja) (こうえい, kōei)
• Korean: 자손(子孫) (ko) (jason), 후예(後裔) (ko) (huye)
• Kyrgyz: тукум (ky) (tukum)
• Latin: prognatus m, successio (la) f
• Lycian: 𐊏𐊁𐊇𐊁 (newe)
• Macedonian: потомок m (potomok)
• Malay: keturunan (ms)
• Manchu: ᠠᠮᠠᡤᠠ
  ᡝᠨᡝᠨ (amaga enen)
• Maori: mokopuna, whakahekenga, mangainga, tākerekere (direct descendant)
• Norman: d'scendant m, d'scendante f
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: etterkommer (no) m

  Nynorsk: etterkomar m, etterkommar m

• Ottoman Turkish: نسل (nesl)
• Persian: فروشونده (forušavande)
• Polish: potomek (pl) m, potomkini f, zstępny (pl), descendent (pl) m
• Portuguese: descendente (pt) m or f
• Romanian: descendent (ro) m, descendentă (ro) f, urmaș (ro) m, urmașă (ro) f
• Russian: пото́мок (ru) m (potómok)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: по̀томак m

  Roman: pòtomak (sh) m

• Slovak: potomok m, potomkyňa f
• Slovene: potomec (sl) m
• Spanish: descendiente (es) m
• Swahili: mzao class 1/2
• Swedish: ättling (sv) c, avkomma (sv) c, avkomling (sv) c
• Tagalog: inanak
• Tarifit: taṛwa f
• Telugu: వారసుడు (te) (vārasuḍu), ఆనువంశీకుడు m (ānuvaṁśīkuḍu)
• Thai: ผู้สืบสันดาน (th) (pûu-sʉ̀ʉp-sǎn-daan)
• Turkish: döl (tr), zürriyet (tr)
• Tày: bổi
• Ukrainian: наща́док m (naščádok), пото́мок (uk) m (potómok)
• Vietnamese: hậu bối
• Welsh: disgynnydd (cy) m, disgynnyddion m pl
• Yiddish: אָפּשטאַמלינג m (opshtamling)

which derives directly from a given precursor or source

• Dutch: afstammeling (nl) m, nakomeling (nl) m
• Finnish: seuraaja (fi)
• Maori: whakahekenga
• Portuguese: descendente (pt) m or f

later evolutionary type

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 後裔／后裔 (zh) (hòuyì)

• Danish: efterkommer c
• Dutch: afstammeling (nl) m
• Finnish: jälkeläinen (fi)
• French: descendant (fr) m
• German: Abkömmling (de) m
• Icelandic: afkomandi m
• Norman: d'scendant m
• Portuguese: descendente (pt) m or f
• Russian: пото́мок (ru) m (potómok)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: потомак m

  Roman: pòtomak (sh) m

• Turkish: feri (tr)
• Ukrainian: наща́док m (naščádok)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• Turkish: ^{(please verify)} evlat (tr), ^{(please verify)} torun (tr), ^{(please verify)} altsoy

See also

• offspring
• offshoot
• progeny

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin dēscendentem, the present participle of dēscendere, itself from dē + scandere (“climb, ascend”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /de.sɑ̃.dɑ̃/

• Audio:

  (file)

Participle

descendant

1. present participle of descendre
2. (preceded by en) gerund of descendre

Noun

descendant m (plural descendants, feminine descendante)

1. a descendant; one who is the progeny of someone at any distance of time; e.g. a child; a grandchild, etc.

Antonyms

• ancêtre m
• ascendant m

Adjective

descendant (feminine descendante, masculine plural descendants, feminine plural descendantes)

1. (which is) descending

   Antonyms: ascendant, montant

Derived terms

• compatibilité descendante

Related terms

• descendance
• descendre

Further reading

• “descendant”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Latin

Verb

dēscendant

1. third-person plural present active subjunctive of dēscendō