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.

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