descension

English

Etymology

From Middle English descencioun, from Old French descension, from Latin dēscēnsiō, dēscēnsiōnem.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /dɪˈsɛnʃən/
• Rhymes: -ɛnʃən

Noun

descension (countable and uncountable, plural descensions)

1. (now rare) Descent; the act of descending. [from 15th c.]

   Death is followed by either ascension into a higher plane or descension into a lower plane.

   • c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Fourth, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene v]:

     From a God to a Bull? a heavy descension. It was Jove's case.

2. (astronomy, obsolete) The descent below the horizon of a celestial body. [16th–19th c.]
   • 1646, Sir Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica, VI.3:

     For in regard of time (as we elsewhere declare) the stars do vary their longitudes, and consequently the times of their ascension and descension.

Derived terms

• descensional

 

Old French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin dēscēnsiō, dēscēnsiōnem.

Noun

descension oblique singular, f (oblique plural descensions, nominative singular descension, nominative plural descensions)

1. descent

Antonyms

• ascension

Descendants

• → English: descension