descendant

Contents

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) IPA^(key): /dɪˈsɛndənt/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Adjective

descendant (not comparable)

1. descending from a biological ancestor.
2. proceeding from a figurative ancestor or source.

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.

Alternative forms

• descendent

Antonyms

• ascendant, ascendent, ascending

Related terms

• descendancy

Noun

descendant (plural descendants)

1. (literally) One who is the progeny of a specified person, at any distance of time or through any number of generations.

   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.
   • 1993, Jens Elmegård Rasmussen, “The Slavic i-verbs with an excursus on the Indo-European ē-verbs”, in Bela Brogyanyi and 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.

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

• direct descendant
• indirect descendant

Translations

one who is the progeny of someone

• Albanian: pasardhës (sq) n
• Arabic: سَلِيل‎ m (salīl)
• Armenian: հետնորդ (hy) (hetnord), ժառանգ (hy) (žaṙang), սերունդ (hy) (serund)
• Belarusian: нашча́дак m (naščádak)
• Bulgarian: пото́мък (bg) m (potómǎk)
• Catalan: descendent 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)

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

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

• Czech: potomek (cs) m
• Dutch: afstammeling (nl) m, nakomeling (nl) m, nazaat (nl) m, telg (nl) m
• Estonian: järglane
• Ewe: dzidzimevi n
• Finnish: jälkeläinen (fi)
• French: descendant (fr) m, descendante (fr) f
• German: Nachkomme (de) m, Nachkommin 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 f, Nachkömmling m, Nachwuchs (de) m
• Greek:

  Ancient Greek: ἀπόγονος m (apógonos)

• Hausa: zuriya (ha)
• Hebrew: צֶאֱצָא‎ (he) m (tse'etsa)
• Hindi: वंशज (hi) m (vanśaj)
• 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)
• Korean: 자손 (ko) (jason), 후예 (ko) (huye)
• Macedonian: потомок m (potomok)
• Malay: keturunan
• Maori: mokopuna, whakahekenga, mangainga, tākerekere (direct descendant)
• Norman: d'scendant m, d'scendante f
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: etterkommer m

  Nynorsk: etterkomar m, etterkommar m

• Polish: potomek (pl) m, potomkini f
• Portuguese: descendente (pt) m, f
• Romanian: descendent (ro) m, descendentă (ro) f, urmaș (ro) m, urmașă (ro) f
• Russian: пото́мок (ru) m (potómok)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: потомак m

  Roman: pòtomak (sh) m

• Slovak: potomok m
• Slovene: potomec (sl) m
• Spanish: descendiente (es) m
• Swahili: mzao class 1/2
• Swedish: ättling (sv) c, avkomma (sv) c, avkomling (sv)
• Tagalog: inanak
• Telugu: వారసుడు (te) (vārasuḍu), ఆనువంశీకుడు m (ānuvaṃśīkuḍu)
• Thai: ผู้สืบสันดาน (th) (pûu-sʉ̀ʉp-sǎn-daan)
• Ukrainian: наща́док m (naščádok)
• Welsh: disgynnydd (cy) m, disgynnyddion m pl

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, f

later evolutionary type

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 後裔 (zh), 后裔 (zh) (hòuyì)

• 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, f
• Russian: пото́мок (ru) m (potómok)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: потомак m

  Roman: pòtomak (sh) m

• Ukrainian: наща́док m (naščádok)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. 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

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French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin dēscendēns, dēscendēntem, the present participle of descendere, itself from dē + scandere (“climb, ascend”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /de.sɑ̃.dɑ̃/

• audio

  (file)

Verb

descendant

1. present participle 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 singular descendante, masculine plural descendants, feminine plural descendantes)

1. (which is) descending.

Antonyms

• ascendant
• montant

Related terms

• descendance
• descendre

Further reading

• “descendant” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

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Latin

Verb

dēscendant

1. third-person plural present active subjunctive of dēscendō